NM Searching For a Few Good Inmates to Fight Fires

From fox43.com - With New Mexico's fire season promising to be brutal and unrelenting, state forestry officials want to increase their firefighting crews -- with prison inmates. The state has trained five crews, a total of 60 minimum-security inmates, that can be called on to fight fires at any time, said Dan Ware, a New Mexico State Forestry Department spokesman. State officials plan to recruit more inmates for this season. "Using inmates allows us to have high-quality hand crews at our disposal at a moment's notice to aid in firefighting," Ware said. He said saving New Mexico money in hard economic times is one benefit of the inmate work program. Inmates are paid about $1 an hour, compared to state forestry workers, who earn around $17 an hour fighting fires. "One of the goals of the program is rehabilitation, to give inmates training so when they're released they have something to fall back on," Ware said.  More News New Mexico

NM Searching For a Few Good Inmates to Fight Fires