wow..cost effective prisoners. As federal agencies have cut costs during the budget standoffs in Washington, further decreasing the size of a firefighting work force that has already been reduced by 40 percent since the 1980s, the burden of fighting wildfires has been shifted to states and local jurisdictions, even as they struggle under the weight of a sluggish economy. Prison crews, cheap and dependable, have emerged as a solution as wildfires burn bigger, hotter and longer each year and take up a growing portion of the United States Forest Service budget. (In 2012 alone, federal agencies spent $1.9 billion on wildfire suppression, just shy of the record, set in 2006.) “They’re very cost-effective,” said Julie Hutchinson, a battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which has the nation’s oldest and largest inmate firefighting program: roughly 4,000 prisoners and 200 crews. “And they’re out in the community, paying back for their mistakes.” nytimes/2013/11/27/us/as-costs-are-cut-inmates-fill-gap-in-fighting-wildfires.html?_r=0
Posted on: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 15:42:23 +0000
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