The number has come down, but there are 12,861 state workers. I do not know how many federal people are engaged in the fires -- including some military personel. Also, I just learned that the federal las [when was this put into place] that the feds require half of their firefighters to be private rather than federal workers.
I fought forest fires one summer in 1961. Damn hard work. I recall that the prisoners did not do the hard, dangeous work, but most mop up & clearing lines. I suspect that if they did other types of work, they would be difficult to monitor.
On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 11:28:39AM -0700, Dennis Claxton wrote:
>
> A lot of those coming to the rescue are prisoners:
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com