In January one of the largest and most destructive fires in history struck LA, and people across the country mobilized in support of the city. Among those brave souls 793 prisoners were utilized as firefighters in an effort to save lives and property.

Those individuals were doing society a great service, risking their lives, breaking their backs, and cutting lines.

Yet they were not treated as heroes, as they were part of California’s inmate fire program. These individuals are paid as low as $5 for dangerous and brutal work, and have little to no access to further employment once released.

This column seeks to outline the unjustifiable nature of the prison labor system from every angle.

From a moral point of view, prison slavery robs human beings of the dignity a person deserves. Furthermore it degrades their position to that of livestock, a tool to be used in a job.

The point of slavery has always been to extract value from a person, in doing so the person is robbed of their status as a human. Prison provides a perfect place for this to happen, as the victims of such a system are already guilty, and therefore deserving in the eyes of the public.

As a society, we have come to believe that because a person committed a crime, there are few red lines when punishing them.

The enforcement of laws is necessary, the point is that no crime deserves the punishment of depriving another human being of their personhood.

California’s firefighters can earn a lower sentence and a clean record, but what all participants in the fire camp program talk about is how they are treated like humans. When they go to the camps they feel like they have purpose and hope again.

Not to mention the state of camps is far better than state prisons.

Despite the fact that people working in these camps are subjected to brutal 24 hour shifts at $5 an hour.

It is important to mention that deprivation plays heavily into the coercion necessary for enforcing slave labor.

The willingness to sacrifice their lives to protect their fellow Californians should not be overlooked. These people, even in their slavery, have chosen kindness and hope. These people are not definitely not deserving of inhumanity.

These people are quintessential for the protection of lives and property, with a 2025 Forbes article reporting as many as one-third of the firefighting force. They deserve more than the greatest injustice in American History.