Female Inmate Fire Camp in LA County
Kurt Kamm
July 03, 2008
Camp 13 is a female prison inmatge fire camp up in the Malibu hills, near a private golf club (!) It is run jointly by Los Angeles County Correctional Department and Fire Department. The women in the camp are non-violent offenders. Most are serving sentences of up to five years for drug related offences, burglaries, identity theft or welfare fraud.
Camp 13 is low security, with ordinary chain link fences. The Camp Superintendent told me he could remember only one instance of an inmate walking away from the camp. For the inmates it is a source of pride to be there, and no one wants to jeopardize the opportunity.
There are approximately 110 women at the camp. They are chosen when they have less than half their sentence left and are not considered a flight risk. Most have approximately two years left to serve, and 5 – 10 are paroled out of the camp every month.
Each day at Camp 13 counts for three days served against the sentence. The inmates come from the Chino Institute for Women, which houses 3,000 inmates. At Chino, the prisoners are paid $1.70 - $3.60 for their prison work. At Camp 13 the women earn an extra $1.00 per hour. As distinguished from male prisoners, there are few racial issues and no gangs among the women inmates.
There is a waiting list of up to 40 inmates, and the opportunity to go to Camp 13 is highly coveted. The women receive some training at Chino before coming to Camp 13.
The facility looks like a beat-up summer camp for kids. It consists of simple one story buildings which house the inmates, corrections officers, and fire supervisors. There are the usual dining halls, laundries, and limited recreational areas.
The women are divided into fire crews of 14. Their job is to cut fire lines and clear brush. They are transported to fires in the same type of fire crew truck used by other wildland firefighters. In many cases, they work side-by-side with the paid firefighters on the firelines, although they are kept away from the most dangerous situations.
Two women in each crew operate 21 inch chainsaws (they are the "sawyers"), and one woman helps the saw operators (the "bucker"). The remainder wield shovels, Mcleods (a hoe-rake device, pronounced "mc cloud") and Pulaskis (a chopping device similar to an axe). On the firelines, as well as at the camp, the women wear distinctive orange jumpsuits, which identify them as prisoners.
I have been out in the field with these women. They are proud of their work and work hard at it. It can be exhausting. They are encouraged and complimented by the firefighters who supervise them. It may be the first time in their lives they are accomplishing something and are getting positive reinforcement.
While the work at Camp 13 clearly helps build the self-esteem of the inmates, it is unfortunate that two-thirds return to the prison system.
Kurt Kamm writes novels about fires and firefighters. A resident of Malibu, he has lived through several wildland fires. He is a regular visitor at the fire camps, stations and training academies of L.A. County Fire Department and CalFire. To learn more about his novels, One Foot in the Black, and Red Flag Warning, visit http://www.kurtkamm.com.
Camp 13 is low security, with ordinary chain link fences. The Camp Superintendent told me he could remember only one instance of an inmate walking away from the camp. For the inmates it is a source of pride to be there, and no one wants to jeopardize the opportunity.
There are approximately 110 women at the camp. They are chosen when they have less than half their sentence left and are not considered a flight risk. Most have approximately two years left to serve, and 5 – 10 are paroled out of the camp every month.
Each day at Camp 13 counts for three days served against the sentence. The inmates come from the Chino Institute for Women, which houses 3,000 inmates. At Chino, the prisoners are paid $1.70 - $3.60 for their prison work. At Camp 13 the women earn an extra $1.00 per hour. As distinguished from male prisoners, there are few racial issues and no gangs among the women inmates.
There is a waiting list of up to 40 inmates, and the opportunity to go to Camp 13 is highly coveted. The women receive some training at Chino before coming to Camp 13.
The facility looks like a beat-up summer camp for kids. It consists of simple one story buildings which house the inmates, corrections officers, and fire supervisors. There are the usual dining halls, laundries, and limited recreational areas.
The women are divided into fire crews of 14. Their job is to cut fire lines and clear brush. They are transported to fires in the same type of fire crew truck used by other wildland firefighters. In many cases, they work side-by-side with the paid firefighters on the firelines, although they are kept away from the most dangerous situations.
Two women in each crew operate 21 inch chainsaws (they are the "sawyers"), and one woman helps the saw operators (the "bucker"). The remainder wield shovels, Mcleods (a hoe-rake device, pronounced "mc cloud") and Pulaskis (a chopping device similar to an axe). On the firelines, as well as at the camp, the women wear distinctive orange jumpsuits, which identify them as prisoners.
I have been out in the field with these women. They are proud of their work and work hard at it. It can be exhausting. They are encouraged and complimented by the firefighters who supervise them. It may be the first time in their lives they are accomplishing something and are getting positive reinforcement.
While the work at Camp 13 clearly helps build the self-esteem of the inmates, it is unfortunate that two-thirds return to the prison system.
Kurt Kamm writes novels about fires and firefighters. A resident of Malibu, he has lived through several wildland fires. He is a regular visitor at the fire camps, stations and training academies of L.A. County Fire Department and CalFire. To learn more about his novels, One Foot in the Black, and Red Flag Warning, visit http://www.kurtkamm.com.
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