Redding, a town of almost 100,000 people, is burning today in Northern California. Hundreds have lost their homes, a few have lost their lives. The pictures are devastating – this article has quite a few.

When I look at the pictures, I can understand why people could picture hell as a burning, charred place. Certainly this conjures the imagination (pictures from CalFire, on Twitter):

The split picture gives a better idea of what’s happening:

What I learned today is that many of the people fighting this fire (and others) are inmates. Up to 30% of the firefighters, in fact (according to Mother Jones). They earn a dollar an hour and two days’ credit toward time served for each day they spend at a fire camp.

I’m not sure how I feel about that. Part of me feels like it’s degrading and exploitative. It seems like there would be an incentive to keep prison populations high if they do essential, difficult jobs for sub-standard wages. It also seems pretty awful to tell someone who might be in for a non-violent crime that they can get a little money and time off their sentence AS LONG AS they put their lives at risk.

At the same time, this could be valuable training for post-prison life, right? I’m not sure if felons are hired as firefighters. I’m not sure why they wouldn’t be or shouldn’t be, but I know for many jobs, a felony is a disqualification. We do a terrible job as a country helping people out during and after the prison sentence. Perhaps this is job experience that would look impressive.

The firefighters and people of California are in my thoughts tonight.