Criminal justice. Firewall

• Author: Matt Reynolds
• Pages: 18-19

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Firewall

Former inmates are battling

legal barriers to full-time work

as firefighters

BY MATT REYNOLDS

Since World War II, California

has used inmates to assist full-

time reghters during wildre

season. When an inevitable blaze

breaks out, they are deployed, working

in treacherous conditions.

Like their civilian counterparts,

inmate re crew members help protect

people’s lives and property, and when

they are released, some try to nd em-

ployment in the re service.

For many, though, full-time jobs can

be hard to come by. To remain competi-

tive, aspiring reghters need emergency

medical technician certication. Former-

ly incarcerated people often cannot get

certied because of their felony convic-

tions, conning them to volunteer and

seasonal work. California Emergency

Medical Services Authority rules prevent

a person with one felony conviction

from getting a certication for 10 years

after his or her release. Anyone with

two felony convictions faces a per-

manent ban.

A path to EMT certication recently

opened, but it is limited in scope, ac-

cording to some criminal justice reform

advocates and prisoner reentry experts.

In September, California Gov. Gavin

Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2147. The

rst-of-its-kind law allows those who

worked in prison re camps to petition

courts to expunge their records upon

release. Each judge can choose to grant

or deny the request.

The law does not apply to people

convicted of murder, rape, arson or

any felony punishable by death or life

imprisonment.

“Inmates who have stood on the

frontlines, battling historic res, should

not be denied the right to later become a

professional reghter,” Newsom tweet-

ed after signing the bill.

Some former prisoner reghters,

however, still lament the lack of full-time

opportunities, even though California

has sought help from out of state and

from Canada and Australia during wild-

re season.

But jobs in city re departments are

still highly competitive, and most will

not hire people without EMT cer-

tication.

Fireghter unions, meanwhile, say

reghters assist people when they are

at their most vulnerable, and restrictions

protect the public and maintain trust in

the profession.

One formerly incarcerated person

who can’t make use of the new law is

Dario Gurrola, a 39-year-old seasonal

reghter who served at a re camp

while in custody as a juvenile. His attor-

ney, Andrew Ward, with the Arlington,

Virginia-based Institute for Justice, says

because Gurrola was trained before he

was convicted of two felonies, he is in-

eligible for expungement under the new

law and, therefore, ineligible for EMT

certication.

Gurrola argues that he should not be

punished for mistakes he made in his 20s

and is challenging the constitutionality

of the rules in court. “I’ve got the skills.

This is my passion. Don’t use my past

against me,” he says.

Tim Edwards, president of the re-

ghters’ union Cal Fire Local 2881, is

opposed to the new law because he says

it “fast-tracks” the process to clear crimi-

nal records and risks eroding the public’s

trust in professional reghters. He

supports EMT rules barring people with

two felony convictions, regardless of the

circumstances. “Fireghter associations

and unions believe everybody deserves

a second chance in life,” Edwards says.

But the law poses risks to other reght-

ers and the public, he says, and inmate

reghters do not receive the same level

of training as professionals.

Making f‌iref‌ighting pay

The California Department of Cor-

rections and Rehabilitation runs 44

re camps across 27 counties with the

Department of Forestry and Fire Protec-

tion, also known as Cal Fire. The state

has almost 3,700 inmates working at

the camps, with 2,600 qualied to work

on the re line, the area where brush is

cleared to contain res.

Inmate f‌iref‌ighters work alongside

their civilian counterparts.

Photo by Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

ABA JOURNAL | JUNE–JULY 2021

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