For years California, Florida, Oregon, Washington, and other states have relied on prisoners to fight wildfires. These men and women are trained to perform grueling work while earning just a few dollars, sometimes as little as $2 a day.
As wildfires have become more frequent and intense, the U.S. Forest Service has struggled with staffing shortages due in part to low pay. Incarcerated workers who serve as volunteer firefighters have helped contain and combat the blazes.
Nonprofits like the American Civil Liberties Union have advocated for increasing wages and protections for these workers. And now philanthropies are backing another approach to support this labor force: efforts to help incarcerated people who have been trained as firefighters secure careers in the profession once they leave prison.
Navigating the hurdles to a steady firefighting job isn’t easy. Brandon Smith knows those challenges firsthand. In 2012 he was at Wasco State Prison, near Bakersfield, Calif., about eight months into his sentence for nonviolent charges, when his prison counselor suggested he move to a fire camp. He would be able to live there and learn to fight fires while earning the same certifications as California’s seasonal firefighters.
At Bautista Conservation Camp in Riverside County, about 100 miles southeast of Los Angeles, Smith came to love firefighting. It was one of the first times he was out in nature, and he was good at what he did. He became the leader of his hand crew, wielding a chainsaw at the front of a team that cut back flammable brush and trees to create perimeters that contain fires.
“When you’re incarcerated, you have this stigma of being a public nuisance, but being a firefighter provided an opportunity for me to give back to the community and also give myself a sense of pride,” Smith said. “It was something that I wanted to continue as a way of giving back to the community once I came home.”
But after completing his sentence in 2014, the pathway to a firefighting job wasn’t clear. The certifications he received while incarcerated didn’t count, and he couldn’t even apply for some positions due to his criminal record.
Together, Smith and Royal Ramey, who became a close friend in the fire camp, enrolled in a state-run fire academy to re-earn their required certifications. The classes were familiar — they had been through this before — and they graduated as the top two in their class.
Betty Ashe, a now-retired U.S. Forest Service battalion chief out of Big Bear, Calif., helped them get their first jobs fighting the Lake Fire, which burned more than 31,000 acres in the San Bernardino National Forest in the summer of 2015. They both spent several years as wildland firefighters.
Starting a Nonprofit
Smith and Ramey understood how a lack of access to information or networks could hold their peers back, so they began helping other incarcerated and previously imprisoned firefighters find their way in applying for and getting jobs. The two eventually founded the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program and now work there full time.
The nonprofit offers its own training to get participants the credentials they need for some entry-level state, federal, or private firefighting jobs. Participants spend time in the classroom and in the field doing fire-prevention work such as thinning forests on public lands and removing flammable vegetation from around people’s homes. Participants earn $17.50 an hour while they train.
A nearly $500,000 grant from the state helped the organization grow from a strictly volunteer effort. And in recent years, foundations began taking notice. Early supporters included Google.org, which provided $500,000. Venture-philanthropy organization New Profit gave $40,000, and the Worker’s Lab, which supports efforts to make workers more safe and secure, granted $150,000.
Current foundation donors include the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which gave $304,000; the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which gave $120,000; and the JM Kaplan Fund, which gave $175,000. This year the James Irvine Foundation presented the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program’s founders, Smith and Ramey, with its Leadership Award, which came with a $250,000 prize.
“We really need people who are trained and who can help fight these wildfires,” said Charles Fields, vice president of program implementation at the Irvine Foundation. “At the same time, we have a lot of folks who are coming out of jails and prisons and who are looking for opportunities to become productive citizens in our society. It’s not easy to get back on your feet and find a job with the skills that are going to pay a living wage.”
The Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program takes those two important challenges and brings them together, Fields said.
The nonprofit now has a $3.4 million budget and has trained more than 3,000 people and helped more than 140 get jobs.
Smith, Ramey, and other previously incarcerated firefighters visit all 35 fire camps and training centers within California to tell about their experience securing careers as professionals and inspiring those who are incarcerated to explore that path when they leave prison.
Social and Career Services
Through a partnership with the University of Southern California, students who are studying to get master’s degrees in social work serve as case managers to help trainees find housing, get driver’s licenses, and access mental-health services, if needed.
The nonprofit also helps participants with their résumés, applications, and interviews, and makes introductions at fire stations. In addition, it works with partners to help participants navigate the court system.
In 2020, California passed a law that allows formerly incarcerated firefighters to petition the courts to expunge their convictions upon release. If they win approval, they don’t have to wait until their parole ends to apply for jobs within municipal and county fire departments or to pursue the EMT credentials required of most full-time, higher-paying firefighting positions. With the help of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program has successfully filed 38 petitions, 12 of which have been granted so far, and 21 of which are pending.
The organization has plans to continue expanding its work. A Bay Area grant maker, Tipping Point Community, provided $150,000 to help the Los Angeles-based group expand to Oakland, where it will soon begin working with fire-camp alumni who return to the Bay Area. “The sad part is that we’re always at capacity,” says Smith.
And last year, the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program launched the Buffalo Fire Crew, a private nonprofit firefighting group that includes many graduates of the training program.
“Our program is here to help people to go make that 180-degree transition,” Smith says. “To go out and truly be public servants; to go out and prove to the community that my past does not define me.”
Reporting for this article was underwritten by a Lilly Endowment grant to enhance public understanding of philanthropy. See more about the grant and our gift-acceptance policy.
