By Dakota Smith
Los Angeles Times
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed legislation to boost the pay of state prisoners assigned to battle California wildfires.
Assembly Bill 247, whose author is Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, raises wages from about $1 an hour to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. The wages remain far below the state wage of $16.50 an hour.
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The legislation takes effect immediately and was expected to pass after Newsom signed a budget this year that allocates $10 million for incarcerated firefighters’ wages.
Prison fire crews are a significant part of the state’s effort to battle wildfires. In January, more than 1,000 prisoners worked on the devastating fires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, with some earning less than $30 a day.
The inmates clear brush and dig containment lines, but don’t wield hoses. Working at one of the state’s 35 minimum-security fire camps is a voluntary and coveted job, compared with other prison work.
Simone Price, director of advocacy and organizing at the Center for Employment Opportunities, one of the bill’s many co-sponsors, called the fire work one of the most “dangerous occupations available to individuals who are currently incarcerated.”
The issue of prisoners earning low wages while battling fires emerged as a popular social justice cause in recent years.
In 2020, Newsom signed a law that allows nonviolent incarcerated people who worked on a conservation camp fire crew to have their records expunged.
The California State Sheriffs’ Association opposed the bill over the cost of the higher wages and argued that incarcerated firefighters already get credit for work. Some prison workers assigned to hand crews have their sentences reduced by two days for each day they serve on active fires.
Newsom previously signed a related bill by Bryan, Assembly Bill 248, that allows counties to set wages for prisoners who work.
Newson on Friday also signed more than two dozen bills related to the January fires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, including legislation focused on boosting tenant protections and hastening rebuilding. The legislation includes:
- Assembly Bill 299 by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, allows those displaced by disasters to live in short-term lodging facilities without being labeled “tenants.”
- Assembly Bill 462 by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, makes it easier to build an accessory dwelling unit following a disaster, including by streamlining the California Coastal Commission approval process.
- Senate Bill 495 by Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, allows people to forgo having to immediately itemize their insurance claim losses in the event of a total loss and requires insurers to pay no less than 60% of the policy coverage limit.
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