Adrian Skabelund
The Arizona Daily Sun, Flagstaff
PHOENIX — As Arizona looks ahead to what could be a busy fire season, state officials are hoping inmates might present part of a solution.
Gov. Doug Ducey this month signed into law a new initiative this month that, in part, would train about 700 Arizona Department of Corrections inmates as wildland firefighters.
The program is couched as a win-win situation, providing more manpower to fight wildfires for forest restoration work, while providing the inmates involved with an opportunity to build skills before their release.
“I’m confident that this will help reduce recidivism by giving state inmates the opportunity to learn job skills for employment upon release,” Ducey said during a call with rural press. “I know among some folks a stigma remains, but the overwhelming majority of the public has seemed open-minded to this this opportunity.”
Inmates assisting with firefighting efforts is not new in Arizona. The state has had about 200 inmates in such programs, and some of those crews even helped respond to the Museum Fire near Flagstaff in 2019.
Later that year during a joint meeting, the Flagstaff City Council and Coconino County Board of Supervisors recognized the efforts of the Perryville prison all-female fire crew who helped fill and stack sandbags in concerns about fears of post-fire flooding.
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