Rural counties increasingly depend on prisons to supply firefighters and paramedics who work free of charge, but inmates have little protection or future job prospects

If you call 911 in rural Georgia, the closest emergency responders may come from the local jail.

In 1963, the Georgia Department of Corrections began a program to do that Training prisoners to change into firefighters to support not only their prisons but in addition the encompassing communities. Over time, this system has grown dramatically. Today, prison fire crews from 19 state prisons in Georgia, including a women's prisonand 6 county jails are trained in firefighting and emergency medical care.

Crews reply to vehicle accidents, structure fires, bushfires, hazardous materials incidents, and search and rescue missions, amongst others without receiving a salary. Jackson County, Georgia, describes imprisoned firefighters in response to “every structure fire in Jackson County, where they provide manpower to every fire department on site.”

Georgia is just not alone on this practice. prison systems in Alabama, California, IndianaMississippi, New Mexico and Wyomingtogether with Federal Bureau of Prisonshave deployed incarcerated firefighters to reply to local emergencies.

Although these programs provide a significant service in lots of rural areas, they are usually not universally popular. They are accused of exploiting incarcerated people and taking jobs away from skilled firefighters.

The Era of Rural Decline and Mass Incarceration

I study connections between disasters and mass incarceration and spend a whole lot of time speaking with prison officials, disaster response teams, and inmates. My research found that individuals were incarcerated increasingly embedded in local emergency response efforts as paramedics and firefighters. There are two fundamental reasons: the endangerment of rural communities and the endangerment of incarcerated employees.

Many rural communities were has struggled to supply adequate emergency services for years. With the lack of population, their tax revenues also dwindle. Staffing volunteer fire departments was also tougher, because the increasing demands at work and on families left less and fewer time for volunteer work.

At the identical time, the Nineteen Eighties to early 2000s saw a decline in rural communities an explosion within the prison constructing. A tricky crime policy led to 1 Increase in incarceration ratesalthough research suggested that incarceration played a job at best minimal connection to crime rates.

Prisons were marketed as a approach to stabilize rural communities devastated by declines in manufacturing and resource-dependent industries equivalent to mining. They remain a cornerstone of many fragile rural economies today.

The rise of prison emergency services

The prison fire departments first began training prison staff and inmates to guard prisons from firesThey understand that there could also be little or no outside support of their rural areas. Occasionally, prison fire departments responded to local emergencies or disasters when the local fire department needed assistance. But that has modified in lots of communities.

Today the Georgian program has about 200 participants annually. Anyone who qualifies receives training to change into certified as firefighters and paramedics and to live within the prison fire department as an alternative of in cells. But while some states, including Californiapay a small wage to Georgia's inmate fire crews receive no salary.

Officials in rural communities told me they depend on prison services because Their own emergency response teams were understaffed. Without adequate staffing, not only were communities in danger, but in addition any paid or volunteer firefighters, as they might respond without the support needed to soundly reply to emergencies.

But while this system has provided much-needed stability for a lot of communities, it has also faced backlash in some areas. When Camden County, GeorgiaWhen considering supplementing the local fire department with incarcerated firefighters in 2011, members of the department expressed concerns about community safety.

Officials I spoke with suspected this was the case some resentment from more urban areas who see this system as a approach to avoid paying profession firefighters, and from local volunteers who feel they’re being replaced by the incarcerated firefighters.

Missing link: Career prospects after prison

The Georgia program also raises questions on the vulnerability of incarcerated firefighters.

Incarcerated individuals participating in this system must sign a waiver This relieves the Georgia Department of Corrections of liability in the event that they are injured while working as a firefighter. They are too are usually not entitled to employees' compensation advantages.

These rules increase risks for incarcerated firefighters. Several were injured while responding to fires and other local emergencies in Georgia and other states.

At least one imprisoned firefighter has died in Georgia. William A. Satterfield has died 1984 in response to a fireplace call from the prison fire department. In May 2013, the Georgia Board of Public Safety voted to honor Satterfield's death and repair with a Public Safety Memorial. Two firefighters from Dooly State Prison in Georgia were injured in a vehicle accident in 2016 while responding to a fireplace call.

An imprisoned firefighter in Mississippi, Michael Davenportdied while fighting a structure fire in 2006. According to court documents from a later lawsuit, Davenport didn’t receive full firefighting trainingbut there have been no laws at the moment providing for such training.

It is unknown how common these injuries are or how working as a firefighter affects the health of incarcerated individuals upon release.

Prison officials told me that men and ladies were incarcerated profit from this system since it provides vocational training.

However, once released, incarcerated firefighters face significant obstacles to finding employment in the fireplace and emergency services. Current Georgia law doesn’t allow this Participants in this system have as much as five years from the date of their conviction to use for a civilian position with a fireplace department.

Several firefighters told me they wished they might hire the incarcerated firefighters they worked with. But in the event that they had had the means to rent more full-time firefighters, they wouldn't have worked on this system in the primary place.

States can take steps to assist

Some states have worked to develop policies that support formerly incarcerated firefighters. In 2020, California passed a law that will allow incarcerated firefighters to use Criminal record clearedwhich makes them eligible to use for paramedic positions.

I consider that incarcerated firefighters and firefighters in Georgia and other states would profit from similar measures that will allow them to seek out employment upon release. The state and plenty of others would also profit from addressing the acute vulnerability rural fire departments face as they struggle to guard their communities with limited outside support.