Our Future Firefighters
By A select group of inmates may be exchanging their prison jumpsuits for firefighting gear in Camden County.
The inmates-to-firefighters program is one of several money-saving options the Board of County Commissioners is looking into to stop residents’ fire insurance costs from more than doubling. […] The inmate firefighter program would be the most cost-effective choice, saving the county more than $500,000 a year by some estimates. But that option is already controversial, drawing criticism from the firefighters who would have to work alongside – and supervise – the prisoners.
The Camden program would put two inmates in each of three existing firehouses, and they would respond to all emergencies – including residential – alongside traditional firefighters. The inmates would have no guard, but would be monitored by a surveillance system and by the traditional firefighters, who would undergo training to guard the inmates.
The inmates would not be paid for their work, but upon release they would be eligible to work as firefighters five years after their conviction dates instead of the normal 10.
Of course, the long-term goal here is to replace all highly paid workers with prisoners. It’s the ultimate solution to the labor problem. Forget cheap labor. Slave labor is absolutely the way to go. If they die in a fire, who cares! And when they get out of prison early for this, we can just arrest more people to keep the labor supply strong. Then we can give millionaires more tax breaks!
And the fact that the majority of these unpaid Georgia prisoners are black and are working for a white-dominated government has no meaning at all. Like with Troy Davis, there’s nothing to see here….