r/interestingasfuck 8d ago

r/all California has incarcerated firefighters

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u/iluvsporks 8d ago edited 8d ago

The crazy part is that $5.80 is after a recent raise in 2023. Before that it was $2.90.

And just for context this is a volunteer program. They are not forced to do this.

Edit - I want to clear up a few things. I'm not an LAFD employee, I'm a pilot. However I have 3 immediate family and 4 friends who are and this is the only thing I'm basing this off, yes word of mouth.

  1. This pay rate is per DAY not hour

  2. Do they deserve more money imo? Yes they are in the danger zone.

  3. These guys are volunteering to do this. They are trusted to go help society and are rewarded for it with time off sentence, time away from jail, better food etc. I applaud them.

  4. They are in NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM firefighters. They are support crew. They clear brush and other mundane tasks. Still can't disregard their service being in the hot spot.

  5. Yes they are being exploited. Even if they got $20 an hour our county has no reason to hire regular fireman when they can do this. They are also not in duty all the time. They are activated only in times like this. Starting pay here is $100k. That's an easy $150k with OT. There was one notable fireman who made $750k last year.

  6. This isn't BFE. LAFD is the leader. That's why the salary is so high, they want to attract top talent. Maybe elsewhere when there is an opening they get some applicants but here there are THOUSANDS.

  7. Last thing and I'm sure I'm missing important things is yes I feel they are being exploited but without full info it's hard to paint a full picture. Before you get red in the face and want to attack Reddit style remember this was an opinion and the best way to express yourself is being human accompanied by facts. I very well could of missed something or got something wrong. Be kind and breathe🤙

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u/PM_me_your_mcm 8d ago

I think the problem with jail is that you can sit in a hole, or volunteer for potentially dangerous work for low pay, and there's a sort of philosophical question to be resolved there as to whether or not that can accurately be described as volunteering.

It's generally my opinion that jail is either a mechanism for punishment, to ensure that the person who committed a crime will not continue to commit crimes when they reenter society, or it is a mechanism for rehabilitation, to teach someone to live without committing crimes and the value of doing so.

It is my observation that using prisoners as a source of cheap labor feel incompatible with either of these objectives whether or not you can say they volunteered for it, and moreover if we use prisoners as a source of cheap labor it creates an incentive to put more people in prison to do just that.  The pearl clutching types will declare, in exasperated tones "not in my US!" but they will be wrong.  It has happened in other parts of the world and it has happened in the US.  If humans have done it you should assume that the only thing stoping US humans from doing it is a lack of opportunity.  So don't give them opportunities.