This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

As record-setting Washington wildfires burned last week, a 16-year-old inmate who was helping to fight the Chelan Complex fire escaped from a work camp, after punching a security guard.



'It's unrelenting': inside the Washington town surrounded by raging wildfires Read more

The next day, 22 August, police found the inmate on a nearby road and attempted to apprehend him. He pulled out a .22 caliber revolver and, after a brief interaction, fired one shot to his head.

The teen survived, but the program that deploys young inmates to help fight wildfires was placed on hold.

Washington has been employing inmates in juvenile detention to fight wildfires for decades. But the teen’s escape has shed new light on the program.

David Ball, a criminal justice lawyer and corrections expert at California’s Santa Clara University, said he was surprised to learn of fire camps for inmates under the age of 18.

“The word about scared-straight boot camps for juveniles is that they don’t do any good,” said Ball. “For most juvenile programs, there are lots of other things for these kids to do, like get their GED and go to counseling. This is really something that I have not heard of.”

The Washington state government said it was reassessing the juvenile work camps, in light of the events. Two deployed crews had been recalled to their main facilities.

But Jennifer Redman, a probation officer with Washington’s juvenile services, said she was hopeful the state will “get this program back up and running so we can deploy again”.

Naselle Youth Camp, which houses 76 boys, deploys two fire crews throughout the year. Since the 1960s, camps like this one have supplied the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) with inexpensive labor for trail work, fire prevention and fire suppression.

Redman said such crews were “not in the midst of heavy flames”. She said they began their 16-hour days at around 4am or 5am, received a lunch break, and then continued work until the early evening. Receiving orders from a DNR fire crew, they assisted with digging trenches, hauling pails of water to put out hot spots and supporting frontline firefighters.

“[They are] providing low-level fire suppression, so maybe just a smaller hose going to smaller areas,” said Redman. “Or doing clear-cutting.”

During a 14-day rotation, she said, inmates on fire prevention work received between $0.70 and $1.60 per day. Stints could be extended to 21 days, with a day off, and overtime pay or bonus fire pay was possible.

“Definitely the skills are transferrable,” said Redman. “Just waking up early in the morning and going to work, which is not a skill our kids come to us with.”

The young inmates at Naselle have committed crimes ranging from theft or drug offenses to burglary and violent crime.

The youth who escaped from the camp allegedly obtained the gun from a parks vehicle, about eight hours after he assaulted a guard and ran. According to a police report, he was in stable condition in hospital.

“The length we’ve been involved in the program speaks for itself,” said Redman, who said it was “extremely successful, both for the kids as well as the communities that they’re providing support for”.

The average age of children in Washington’s juvenile work camps is between 16 and 17, according to juvenile services.

For years, state budget cuts have threatened to shutter the low-security Naselle Youth Camp. In a town hall meeting in 2009, Naselle graduates turned up to fight for the camp, which offers an alternative to typical incarceration.

One former resident talked about working with the DNR for four years and being deployed at 12 fires. He called the work programs, which made him more than $7,000, “irreplaceable” and said they helped him become a “successful and productive young man” upon release.

California has two Division of Juvenile Justice fire camps. But in that state, juveniles must be at least 18 to work in a camp. In California, which also operates 42 adult fire camps, 18- to 23-year-olds are expected to operate closer to the fire. In the 72 years the program has existed, inmates have died working the fire line.

According to Bill Sessa, an information officer with the California department of corrections, “all of the juvenile offenders [used to fight fires] have committed serious or violent felonies”.

Sessa said spots in the program were coveted, available to both young men and women, and only granted to inmates that were exceptional.

“They have to have the aptitude to be in the camp,” said Sessa. “They have to be willing to work as a team. They have to take the responsibility to be part of a crew. And they have to be physically able to do the work.

“You can’t minimize the fact that it’s dangerous work. But by the same token, the safety record of these crews is very good.”

The point of such camps, as laid out by the state of California, is to “provide the cooperative agencies with an able-bodied, trained work force for fire suppression and other emergencies such as floods and earthquakes”.

Redman said that while such work in Washington state was good for discipline, inmates were not necessarily receiving vocational training that would set them up for a job with the DNR upon release.

“I wouldn’t say it’s very common,” she said, “because there’s competing demand for those jobs.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Chelan Complex Fire is reflected on Lake Chelan, earlier this month. Photograph: Jason Redmond/Reuters

In many states, including California, inmate firefighters will be disqualified from fire crews once they get out of prison, due to their felony convictions. The Washington DNR conducts what a human resources representative called “extensive” criminal background checks. Certain types of felon are automatically barred.



For adult inmates, David Ball said, the work may be dangerous but the camps are often a welcome alternative.

“Prison is terrible,” said Ball. “And this is the less terrible version of prison for most people.”

Ball said it was important for each state to assess whether such programs were rehabilitating inmates, not least when the inmates were minors.

“It might be a great idea for these kids going out on these fire crews,” said Ball. “But I’d like to know, what evidence do you have that that’s true? We don’t typically let children do this type of work.”