California's governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill Friday that will give prisoners battling historic wildfires a chance to work professionally as firefighters after they have served prison time. The governor claims inmates who have been on the frontlines, going toe-to-toe with massive wildfires should not be denied the right to later work as professional firefighters.
Newsom passed the bill under California bill AB2147, which allows certain prisoners who are on the front lines of the firefighting team to have their records erased after serving their sentences. The idea behind this is to facilitate their firefighting career after release.
It is no secret that people with criminal records struggle to find employment. Keeping that in mind, Newsom decided to give the prisoners a chance to become firefighters along with the removal of their criminal history to ensure it does not hinder their employment.
Newsom tweeted Friday noting the decades-old California inmate firefighter program needs a radical overhaul. He went on to announce that Inmates standing on the front lines, trying to quell historic fires should not be denied the right to become a professional firefighter after release.
Newsom signed the bill near Lake Oroville, with charred trees and grey ash in the backdrop. Lake Oroville is one of the worst affected sites devastated by several fires that continue to char the state for weeks now. The California wildfires have claimed at twenty lives, according to Cal Fire.
The bill does not include prisoners convicted of crimes such as rape, kidnapping, murder, arson, or any felony punishable by death or life imprisonment. The state has not been able to field enough inmate firefighters in recent years due to changes in state law that have reduced the number of lower-level offenders in state prison.
Moreover, court rulings ended several incentives for inmates to agree to risk their lives fighting fires when they could earn similar early release credits by doing less dangerous chores. This year, the shortage grew with thousands of inmates released early in an attempt to restrict the spread of the coronavirus through prisons, bringing the number of inmate firefighters down by 30 percent from last year.
The recently passed bill is likely to create a new incentive as it allows former inmate firefighters to ask a judge to have their records expunged after release. This will make it easier for them to have a firefighting career after serving their sentences.
The expungement would enable the former firefighters to apply for any of more than 200 occupations that require a state license, an opportunity people with criminal records end up losing, Assemblywoman Eloise Reyes said. Reyes, who is a Democrat from San Bernardino has authored the bill.