Over at the Disaster Accountability Blog, we get another complication in the prison mess.

According to a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation press release, “there are 2,245 adult inmates and 53 Division of Juvenile Justice youth deployed to fires statewide, including Los Angeles, Riverside, and 15 other counties,” under the supervision of “187 correctional officers and supervisors.” According to Reuters, “Inmates collectively did 3.1 million hours of emergency firefighting last year at $1 an hour.” California relies heavily on this labor and many worry that a release of 27,000 or more low-risk inmates will forfeit their availability.

There is no doubt that we owe a big debt of gratitude to the pair of brave firefighters that died in the line of duty. However, to base our prison policy on our firefighting needs is sheer madness. In theory, that would tell you to, what, hold more non-violent prisoners who are capable of outside work in prison simply to fight fires?

While it is nice that our prisons can be used in this manner, and it allows the prisoners to actually gain skills and experience which will help them down the line, it is not the point of the prison system. The point is to protect Californians and to rehabilitate the prisoners back into society. Planning our prison system to meet the needs of our fire situation is pretty much the definition of ass-backwards.