Cali Gov Handsome signs bill giving prisoners battling wildfires a shot at becoming pro firefighters

I really like this and it underscores the rehabilitate mission prisons should have. Prisons and prisoners are such a drain on society and we should help non-violent, non-sex offenders move forward. I would have put it in the Hangout but, you know, debates and stuff.

California governor signs bill giving prisoners battling wildfires a shot at becoming pro firefighters
Michael James
USA TODAY

California bill AB2147, Gov. Gavin Newsom is allowing certain prisoners who are on the front lines of wildfire containment to have their records expunged after serving their sentences. The goal is to make it easier for them to have a firefighting career after release.

Criminal records are often a bar to employment. Newsom said he wants to give the prisoners a shot at becoming firefighters and that removing their criminal history will make that more possible.

"California inmate firefighter program is decades-old and has long needed reform," Newsom said on Twitter Friday. "Inmates who have stood on the front lines, battling historic fires should not be denied the right to later become a professional firefighter."

At least 20 people have died in the California wildfires, according to Cal Fire.



The bill excludes those convicted of certain crimes, including murder, kidnapping, rape, arson or any felony punishable by death or life imprisonment
The new law may create a new incentive, by allowing former inmate firefighters, after their release, to ask a judge to withdraw their plea of guilty. The judge could opt to then dismiss the accusations.

The expungement would give the former firefighters the ability to apply for any of more than 200 occupations that require a state license, an opportunity lost to most people with criminal records, according to Assemblywoman Eloise Reyes, a Democrat from San Bernardino who authored the bill.

“These individuals have received valuable training and placed themselves in danger to defend the life and property of Californians,” she said in a legislative analysis. "Those individuals that successfully complete their service in the fire camps should be granted special consideration relating to their underlying criminal conviction.”

The district attorneys association had argued against the bill, saying that expungement of criminal records should be limited to lower-level offenders, few of whom remain in state prisons. It said the incentive should be limited to those who are sent to county jails and not state lockups.

 

I can't think of a better way to show society you're a better person than running into deadly danger to save lives.