Letters to the Editor: Inmate firefighters deserve the chance of a meaningful career after incarceration

Yahoo

31-05-2025

To the editor: If the Fire Act passes, thousands of current fire camp inmates trained in the best practices in fire prevention and active abatement will complete their incarceration with hope for meaningful employment anywhere in our nation ('Under Fire Act, inmate firefighters could have a new pipeline to employment,' May 27).
In my seven years as chaplain to Fire Camp 13 in Malibu, I witnessed hundreds of women become empowered and renewed while protecting our forests, mountains and homes. They were the first responders to the plane crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his daughter and friends. They cleared brush and treated the site respectfully and sorrowfully. These women faced the Palisades and Eaton fires for us.
With our gratitude, let these trained firefighters share their courage and skills anywhere in the USA.
Nan Cano, Westlake Village
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To the editor: I applaud Reps. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) and Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) for introducing a bill to fund, mentor and ensure long-term employment for former inmate firefighters. Years ago, I was appalled to learn how little we pay firefighters, and even less to inmates who also put their lives on the line fighting fires. Andony Corleto and other former inmates who have proven their mettle should be encouraged and helped toward a firefighter career. We need to prepare all inmates to rejoin society with the skills to make a decent living.
My grandfather, who was a prison warden in Campeche, Mexico, way back in the 1930s, had prisoners learn to weave hammocks and opened a prison-run bakery. They did so well that some of the prisoners' wives asked my grandfather to keep them in prison beyond their sentences — they made more money there than they had ever made! Let's support this federal bill.
Carmen Escamilla, San Juan Capistrano
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.