Supervisors Move to Keep Low-risk Inmates Working Fire Lines

The San Diego County region depends on four inmate fire camps run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and CAL FIRE for brush management and wildfire response.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved a measure backed by the Sheriff, the District Attorney, Supervisor Dianne Jacob and County staff to work out a deal to send qualified local jail inmates to the state’s four local camps.

At Tuesday’s Board meeting, Jacob said the inmate firefighting camps were important to public safety because they provided “much needed boots on the ground” when wildfires hit the County.

“These camps have been the backbone of fire protection efforts for decades and we cannot lose that ability,” Jacob said. “Let’s keep them open (and) let’s keep these inmates busy because they can make a real difference in the heat of battle.”

In 2011, the state legislature passed AB 109 or “realignment” to address chronic prison overcrowding, changing state law to send many non-violent offenders to county jails instead of state prisons. But as a consequence, the state no longer has enough low-level offenders to staff the inmate fires camps, which are a critical part of its firefighting program.

The Sheriff’s Department has determined that, at any given time, 50 to 100 inmates in local jails meet the state’s criteria for its inmate fire camps. Transferring inmates will help keep fire crews staffed and protect San Diego County from wildfire. The transfer is also a strategy for freeing up badly needed beds in a system strained to capacity because of realignment and the hundreds of new prisoners and parole violators sentenced here each year.

While the Board approved the transfer of inmates to local state fire camps, it objected to what County officials call the state’s “illogical” practice of charging counties $46 a day to house each inmate. The Board directed County staff to support the State Sheriff’s Association to in its efforts to sway the California Legislature to reduce or eliminate this fee.

In another measure reflecting changes in local jails under realignment, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday adopted resolution to rename two County jails. Under the resolution, the Las Colinas Women's Detention Facility will be renamed the San Diego County Women's Detention and Reentry Facility, and the East Mesa Detention Facility will become the East Mesa Reentry Facility.

Before realignment, criminals sentenced to local jail served less than a year. But now offenders can be sentenced to lengthy felony terms in local jail, so the Sheriff’s Department has implemented new programming and services to help these felons prepare for a successful re-entry to the community upon their