🔴 On-air now: A special report from the Delta Conservation Camp in Suisun City, Calif., where about 100 men are imprisoned and work 24-hour shifts fighting fires with @CAL_FIRE. Prison firefighters earn time off of their sentences, typically two days off for each day served. 
Sgt. Steven Reeder: "They get the toughest assignments in the worst conditions, 110 degrees in the middle of the sun, wearing two layers of clothing, carrying 40 pounds of gear. They have to carry all their food and water for a 24-hour shift." #DNlive
We spoke with prisoner firefighter Marty Vinson after his shift. The night before, he said he carried a fellow firefighter up a mountain for 3 hours after a boulder fell and injured the man. "I want to think of myself as somebody who, whoever needs me, I'm going to be here for."
Prisoner firefighter Dante Youngblood has been at camp for 14 months. He addresses the $1/hour pay: "I would prefer we make more money, anybody in a working position would want to make money." #DNlive
Marty Vinson, California prisoner firefighter at the Delta Conservation Camp, says: "I don't want to call the work slave work, but it's the whole mentality… No matter if we're incarcerated or we're free, we're getting paid $1 an hour."
Critics of the program say the state is exploiting prisoners’ eagerness to earn time for early release. For those trying to make it home to their families, "there is no other option to earn as much good time credit," says Amika Mota. "I'm not sure that that is voluntary."
