If your history of the California Conservation Camp program is only 12-20 years long, you may not be aware of the fluctuations in inmate population. 50 years ago the population was in decline and camps which used to house inmates were converted to CEC Centers. Names changed between Ecology Corp and Conservation Corp a couple of times. As “Law and Order” became the watch word inmate population increased and CCC camps were repopulated with inmates, CYA camps were converted to CDC and new camps were built. Also many new State and private prisons were built. The cycle reversed. I don’t see any issues in CalFire’s filling positions. It may impact other agencies as they struggle to meet the pay and benefits of CalFire, LAC and other large LG departments. So lets all just take a chill pill and enjoy what we have left of “non fire” season and stop looking for problems that don’t exist yet. JMOHO
Ty! Like I said I didn’t know the source and I didn’t share that info anywhere but here because I didn’t trust it. This is exactly why I am extremely picky about my sources and vet them for a long time before trusting them.
I hope you are right. But with the national Unemployment rate below 4%, Over 11 million jobs unfilled in America, and a Labor Force Participation rate that is only 62.7%(in 2005 it was 68.1%) the competition for labor will continue.
Been on the job for 37 years. I speak directly to the situation as it is right now and the camp I work at. Normally has 5 crews, has 1 now. Until last week, that 1 crew was down to 9 guys, so only available for in unit fires. In the long cycle, we’ll probably see a resurgence in total crew numbers, but maybe no inmates at all. In the short term as in this season, buckle your seat belts.
So, sitting around the firehouse kitchen table on our 3rd pot of coffee since we hadn’t had rest for 36 hours, this convo came up with the lack of CDCR crews and our future capabilities…
With newscum running the shop and his prison reform “program”, we obviously have seen a significant decrease in crews and the overall detriment in fire suppression capacity.
The question that came up was…if there is a change in the California political arena and somehow the Republicans have a super majority come November…would that eliminate the current prison reform and potentially bolster up the camps?
Just thoughts.
From a financial standpoint it would probably cost less to increase pay for FF1 fuels crews and CCC crews than to incarcerate more for crimes that may not warrant prison time. It cost approx. $106k per year per prisoner. Of course the work ethic and motivation part of the work force element is still an issue but money is a big motivator.
The ruse of imprisoning people for pot in order to grow prison unions and sell concrete has ended, mostly. That a critical system used this for a key labor pool speaks to our moral and industrial dysfunction.
The history of prison labor in the USA is disgusting, and continues.
“We need to put and keep more people in prison for a coerced labor pool instead of paying willing and motivated free workers better” is a hell of a mindset, and I don’t mean that as a compliment.
Everybody: Let’s please, as best we can, constrain our commentary to the topic at hand, which the shortage of crews and not wander into the wastelands of opinions and politics. Everybody has their personal views on politics and whether or not the use of CDCR inmates was a good plan or bad plan. The facts are that the CDCR crews are diminishing and will continue to erode.
It is far too early in the 2022 Season for the Mods to have to start taking action in what appears is going to be a very rugged year.
Appreciate it and please carry on, constructively
My apologies to the group for bringing up this question. I was not aware that this would “kick a hornets nest”. For the 18 of us having breakfast at the table this morning, who work with CDCR, CCC, and the FF1 crews, this issue has a profound effect on the safety of our crews and communities we serve.
Carry on.
Apart from any moral, ethical, or political questions, I think “paying wildland firefighters more” is a better option than having more convict work crews purely on a practical level, as it would result in a better quality of employee, higher morale, better retention, and would have a positive impact on local economies.
Pot hasn’t been a felony for California for nearly 2 decades. It wasn’t that vast majority of prison labor as those incarcerated usually did less than a year and it was served in county jails. This isn’t a great soapbox for your political beliefs when they are baseless.
Per CDCR there are approx 900 inmates currently in the camp system. That number includes grade and non grade. By June of this year a little less then 400 of someone’s pride and joy will be paroled. There are currently less then 200 inmates awaiting training at Jamestown. That math don’t add up for me but maybe it does…
The program was mildly sustaining itself but with the recent time reduction due to enhancements being dropped things quickly got worse.
I like how nobody wants to address the Elephant in the room that is Demographics. The labor pool in America is shrinking. Let’s role play this for a min. The feds figure out their pay & work classification structure and actually pay a fair wage. Thereby steming the loss of employees. They will still be 20-50% short staffed. The trickle up effect of a lack of employees will continue.
In my unit, I have seen no fewer than 10 folks turn down jobs because 1) It was a crew offer, 2) They are in Medic School.
I have a friends son turn down a job from a “Type 1” LG agency because of a Covid-19 vaccine requirement for employment and later the same week accept a FAE job with Calfire.
The CF FC is has been certified and applications are being accepted. However, Cal-HR and the dept knows the list is already empty before offers go out with the line “TAU offers will be authorized if/when needed throughout the rest of this calendar year.”
The fact remains, more people are leaving the work force in America than are entering the work force…
Until the DEMOGRAPHICS are reversed, this staffing shortage will continue.
Thank you for facts and examples instead of hysteria.
Agreed. I feel strongly that AHC is the way to go, especially if they are typed out as a 1. This program is one of our current recruiting avenues. I know of several firefighters who have done a season on our HC and have decided CF is the agency for them (albeit they are in medic school now).
The decision to open the prison doors and close the Camps when the State is in the midst of a 1200 year drought is like firing your Infantry before you go into battle. The CalFire Hand crews, the upgraded CCC and Rattlesnake crews are a good addition and much needed, but simply can’t make up for the shortfall.
What is a rattlesnake crew?
Task force rattlesnake are made up of national guard soldiers who are spread out across the state while being ran by calfire inmate handcrew captains
CDCR
42 of 152 CDCR Crews are
Type I and available for statewide response
-
5 CDCR Crews are staffed
at less than 12 -
105 CDCR Crews are
down staffed
CCC
19 of 22 year-round CCC
Crews are Type I and
available for statewide response
-
1 CCC Crew is staffed at
less than 12 -
2 year-round crews are
down staffed at this time -
All 6 seasonal CCC
Crews are down staffed
for base staffing
FF I
All FFI Crews are down staffed for base staffing
CNA Rattlesnake Crews
13 of 13 CNA Crews are Type I and available for statewide response
Total
74 of 187 Crews are Type 1 and available for statewide response
Current statewide shortage of fire crew members assigned to fire crews is 1957
CNR currently has 61 CDCR crews down staffed
CNR currently has 4 CCC crews down staffed
CSR currently has 44 CDCR crews down staffed
CSR currently has 4 CCC crews down staffed
CNR camps have decreased 29 fire crew members since March 9th
CSR camps have decreased 14 fire crew members since March 9th
Camps Statewide have decreased 43 fire crew members since March 9th
PFT numbers at CCC are 40
PFT numbers at SCC are 74
PFT numbers between SCC and CCC are 114
FFT numbers at CCC have increased from 0 to 6 since March 9th
FFT numbers at SCC have increased from 55 to 75 since March 9th
FFT numbers statewide have a net increase of 26 since March 9th