Oregon –– A statewide group of organizations including Critical Resistance Portland, Lane County Mutual Aid, Black & Pink PDX, and Sisikyou Abolition Project has launched a fundraiser to place $200 on the commissary accounts of 285 imprisoned people that make up a crucial and exploited front-line of wildland firefighters. This network of organizations has raised over half of their $57,000 dollar total in just over 2 months. This fundraiser was organized to share appreciation and compensation with the underpaid individuals who fought to protect our forests and communities against the deadliest fires in Oregon’s history over August and September.
The fundraiser kicked off with raffles including art donated by local and nationwide artists, books, homemade masks, and other prizes. In Portland, Bakers Against Racism PDX held a bake-sale and letter-writing event to raise over $1,500 for the fundraiser, and Siskiyou Rising Tide (SORT), in southern Oregon, donated a generous $8,500.
“We are absolutely thrilled to see how many people have engaged in direct support for imprisoned firefighters,” Black and Pink PDX organizer Kaïa Austin says. “Hundreds of people have raised thousands of dollars in appreciation of these firefighters, not just Oregonians but people across the country. This fundraiser created a way for words of solidarity, love, and appreciation to break through the isolation of prison walls.”
As is the case in most states across the US, imprisoned people working on fire crews make only a fraction of the pay that non-imprisoned firefighters do. Both imprisoned and “free” firefighters work in the same brutal conditions, and often quite literally prevent entire towns from being turned to ash. Imprisoned firefighters are forced into more deadly and dangerous roles because of their status as prisoners and also make up the kitchen and clean up crews that enable both free and imprisoned wildland firefighters to continue their work.
In Oregon, imprisoned firefighters make a mere $6 dollars a day, $3 dollars of which is not made accessible until their release. Meanwhile, “free” wildland firefighters make over $25.00 an hour, according to typical industry averages. In the case of prisoners who have fees or fines accrued from court or while imprisoned, all their money is automatically transferred to pay these debts.
“We’re coming together to raise funds for imprisoned people doing the same work as non-imprisoned firefighters, yet are shamefully neglected and underpaid. Our work to fight the prison industrial complex involves upholding the dignity of the people who are targeted and harmed by its violence, and that is what we are seeking to do through this fundraiser,” said Shannon Hardt, Portland chapter member of Critical Resistance. “These are people who have been criminalized, torn away from their families and communities, and locked away in a cage – yet are still very literally putting their lives on the line for the rest of us. Like all human beings, they deserve freedom, and our appreciation.”
With the help of numerous volunteers, these organizations have sent over 450 letters to date, continuing correspondence, amplifying stories, and connecting people inside with resources.
According to one letter, ODOC’s contract with the Oregon Department of Forestry to provide firefighters pulls in to the department from $200 to $1,500 per person per day in comparison to the $6 a day wage that the prisoners themselves are compensated. In other letters, imprisoned firefighters describe grueling and courageous rescue missions, last-resort and dangerous attempts to protect homes from fires, and displays of community support and gratitude for their hard work and sacrifice.
Through fundraising, community engagement and a large-scale correspondence effort with people inside, these groups have learned of organizing occurring behind prison walls; including a struggle to commute the sentences of all imprisoned firefighters. This push for mass release is a necessity to protect people’s lives from the danger of COVID-19. Prisoners are also calling for the right to be paid minimum wage by the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) for their labour.
Critical Resistance Portland, Lane County Mutual Aid, Black & Pink PDX, and Siskiyou Abolition Project will end the fundraiser on February, 10 2021, after which they will disperse the money to the firefighters.
Live social media updates are available @ImprisonedFirefighterFundsOR on Instagram!
