Thread by @hahnscratch

Yes, I was an incarcerated firefighter and, yes, I put myself in harm’s way. I did this, in part, because it was safer facing wildfires than sitting behind the walls. Yes, it is safer to fight a wildfire than to sit in a prison.

There are a number of other reasons to go to fire camp, ie earlier release, better food, humane visits, closer to nature, etc. I’m not trying to denigrate the heroism of our incarcerated firefighters - but please understanding that going to fire camp is the BEST of all options.

Many of us likely wouldn’t have chosen to save your homes in the mountains were it not for the fact that you’d keep us locked up in kennel-like war zones if we didn’t.

So, while we may have faced the heat of a wildfire for a few bucks a day, and might’ve saved your house and been happy doing it, understand that we were rational actors. We chose to be there because it was an opportunity to be less disposable.

Less disposable, but disposable nonetheless.

The long trajectory of my rant here is that slavery isn’t the issue here. It’s not about money. It’s not about forcing people to work. No. The incarcerated firefighters are the vanguard of the incarcerated population. You only see them because they’re outside the walls…

And they’re only outside the walls fighting fires because the tax payer / voter has forced them to choose between that and making $0.07 / hr mopping a filthy cell block beneath armed guards in a Covid-infested shithole where the homies are the folks most likely to to kill them.

So you wanna talk about slavery? There’s a guy pushing a broom in a cell block right now making one Top Ramen Noodle a day - just so he can hear his mother’s voice on the phone once per week - a 15-minute call she will pay $10 for, a call she likely cannot afford.

There’s a guy scrubbing the streaks out of prison guards’ toilets, making 7 cents an hour (half of which gets taken because of restitution) just so he can be out of his cell for those couple hours a day.

So, while I appreciate the efforts and concern about incarcerated firefighters, there are literally millions of other incarcerated people in this country living in terrible circumstances, forced to choose between working for nothing and losing their humanity.

Fire camp is one of the few places (in California prisons, at least) at which to escape the awful, inhumane conditions behind the walls. If you go after the fire camps, folks will just go back behind the walls. Please, go after the prisons instead.

In fire camp, there are usually no walls. There are no armed guards. Incarcerated people can picnic and BBQ with their families. They can lift weights. They can hike in nature. They can learn hobbies (painting, sculpture, metal / wood working). They eat good meals…

This doesn’t mean we can’t improve conditions (pre/post release) for the men and woman of fire camps - but, please, folks, let’s look at the bigger picture here. If all prisons were like fire camps we wouldn’t be talking about the prison system the way we do today.

Please "unroll" @threadreaderapp