- In Washington state, the Arcadia 20 program equips inmates with firefighting skills and provides a path to employment after release.
- This program is the result of a collaboration between the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Corrections.
- Members earn higher salaries than regular prison firefighters, up to $60,000 annually.
Prisoner of washington state Members of the prison system wander through the forest, their yellow uniforms and helmets shining among the brown branches and green leaves.
They are the Arcadia 20, or ARC 20, an elite group of Spokane-based firefighters recruited from existing firefighter prison camps.
The goal? To teach inmates the skills they need to help prevent wildfires — and in the process, give them the opportunity to embark on a new career path.
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The program, recruited by the state Department of Natural Resources and Department of Corrections, aims to provide about a dozen inmates with enough training to prepare them for jobs as civilian firefighters after they complete their sentences.
Joshua Tucker-Jonas, 29, an inmate and member of the Arcadia 20, a Spokane, Washington-based group of partially incarcerated firefighters comprised of men recruited by the Washington state Department of Natural Resources and Department of Corrections, marches down a forest road with other members on the Oregon fire near Deer Park, Washington, on August 30, 2023. (Reuters/Matt Mills McKnight)
“One thing I definitely believe in is that people should get a second chance,” said Kenyatta Bridges, 34, who joined the ARC 20 team for training mid-last year while serving a 10-year sentence for murder in a 2014 gang shooting in Pasco, Washington.
After his release, Bridges started a job with a civilian fire brigade on June 3.
Reuters was given exclusive access to ARC 20 for three months, including a visit last August to the Tonasket Rodeo Grounds, a rural community in northeast Washington near the Canadian border. Bridges and the ARC 20 crew were setting up their tents after a day of helping to battle a fire.
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Crew members learn how to conduct prescribed burns, handle dangerous equipment, and make sure a fire is contained and stays that way. And when necessary, they’re on the front lines of a fire, digging lines to reduce the chance of a fire spreading.
According to ARC 20 management, “teamwork, communication skills, accountability for one’s own actions and others as it relates to duties and safety” are integral parts of their mindset.
“The people I’ve worked side by side with have been amazing,” Bridges said. “We’ve all made bad decisions in our lives. Some of us get caught, some don’t. But we learn from our mistakes.”
earnings potential
While Western US states have fire brigades for inmates, Washington’s ARC 20 program is the only one of its kind in the US, recruiting inmates from full-term incarceration into a re-entry center, where they develop skills in firefighting and prepare for life after release.
They also earn more. Inmates at Washington state’s regular prison fire camps, which number about 230, are paid up to $1.50 an hour for their daily duties, depending on experience. When they’re sent into an active fire zone, they’re paid the state’s minimum wage of $16.28 an hour, plus overtime.
Elite crew members who join the ARC 20 team are paid a base salary of up to $3,796 per month, plus overtime pay in the event of a fire. This year-round crew has a maximum of 20 team members.
Its team has 13 people during its first full year in 2023 and is expected to have 12 people when Washington state’s fire season begins in late June.
The Pacific Northwest is grappling with the effects of climate change, with wildfires expected to be more severe than normal this year and having a longer season, according to Department of Natural Resources meteorologists. forest fire prevention and management.
According to DNR officials, who manage both the fully captive camp staff and the ARC 20 team, a high-earning member of the camp staff would earn about $11,000 in 2023, while a member of the ARC 20 staff could earn up to $60,000.
The ARC 20 team is trained to join “hand crews” – teams of 18 to 25 firefighters who work and camp near the front lines of active wildfires, often hiking long distances and carrying their own gear to reach remote areas. They also perform prescribed burns and trim trees to the ground as part of the state’s fire suppression and forest management efforts.
ARC 20 crew superintendent Ben Hood is on the team selecting participants.
“We call it getting bitten by the fire bug … once you get bitten by it, you get addicted to it,” Hood said. “It becomes part of your personality, it becomes more than just a job. It becomes a lifestyle.”
When the team is not traveling across the state to fight fires, they are housed at the Brownstone Reentry Center, a minimum security facility in downtown Spokane. Residents participate in work or training programs and are given additional freedoms such as wearing normal clothing or having a cellphone.
According to the brownstone’s manager, ARC 20 crew members are paid more than some employees of the state’s correctional system, including the facility where they are housed.
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running a kitchen
Reuters in September visited another group of fully incarcerated individuals at the Department of Natural Resources facility, Cedar Creek Correctional Center, southwest of the state capital, Olympia.
They had just returned from a week of work that involved them running a mobile kitchen for about 1,000 wildland firefighters a day fighting the state’s two largest fires of the 2023 season.
Timothy Bullock, 32, an electrician who was sent to jail for second-degree assault stemming from a domestic dispute, said he has changed his life goals and wants to become a wildland firefighter.
“I drank too much … it was a huge mistake on my part that affected other people, people I cared about. So that’s hard to deal with,” Bullock said, admitting he may need a prison sentence to change his ways. “All I know is that I’ll never make mistakes like that again.”
According to his boss at the DNR, Bullock has been a great member of the Cedar Creek Correctional Center camp crew. He has submitted his application for ARC 20 and is being considered for a spot in the fall of 2024.
“I’ve been so close to getting out. It’s working out for the better, you know, getting back on my feet and then getting the opportunity when I get out,” Bullock said.
The Washington model could become a stepping stone for state agencies around the world. AmericaThe incident occurred in 1982, according to transition crew liaison officer Roy Hardin, who helped form the crew with Hood.
“If a person gets a job, gets a really good job after they get out of prison, they don’t end up homeless, they probably won’t come back,” Hardin said, adding that four crew members from ARC 20 have gone on to jobs as members of the state fire agency — one engine leader and three engine crew members.
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Kenyatta Bridges is one of those crew members.
On June 3, he began battling a fire with the DNR’s Arcadia Engine 7405 near Spokane, in one of Washington state’s most wildfire-prone areas.
“He works hard. He’s motivated,” said Superintendent Hood, who recruited Bridges. “He’s becoming one of those leaders. He’s good at operating a chainsaw. He doesn’t quit; he’s physically up to the job. He’s exactly what you want in a firefighter.”
Bridges is excited for this new chapter in his life. Since his release from the brownstone, he has been living in transitional housing with other former inmates in Spokane, and on May 20, his partner gave birth to their son.
“I couldn’t have asked for anything better than that,” Bridges said when talking about his life after his release. “Everything came together so quickly, it felt like every gear was turning in the right place.”
