Oregon inmates are finding redemption in the Cascade Mountains, fighting the biggest wildfires the state has seen in a century reut.rs/2EOupzW 📷 @adreeslatif 1/7
@adreeslatif The men are part of a seven-decade-old state-run program that aims to do two basic things: Rehabilitate prisoners by teaching them a trade, and provide extra boots on the ground for intense wildfire seasons 2/7
@adreeslatif They earn $6 a day for their labor. Many were violent offenders - armed robberies and assaults were common convictions - but none were in prison for homicide or sexual crimes 3/7
@adreeslatif Most say they have personalities that feed off adrenaline. The highs that crime brought landed them in jail. All say they are blessed to have found a legal, alternative rush 4/7
@adreeslatif 'This gives us a different opportunity, rather than going back to something that we already know, which is guns, gangs, violence and drugs,' said Eddie Correia, 36, who is about halfway through his six-year sentence for assault 5/7
@adreeslatif Armando Gomez-Zacarias (R), 24, who has just over three years left on a 7-1/2 year sentence for robbery, said the work gives him 'a nice adrenaline rush' but the physical toll is 'like running 100 laps on the track without stopping and carrying 50 pounds of weight' 6/7
@adreeslatif Correia, who wants to continue fighting fires after he is released from jail, says the camaraderie and sense of purpose 'have helped me deal with a lot of my own demons' 7/7
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