After they ' ve been doing this hard labor, they get to feeling good about themselves and that ' s a new feeling to them. They don ' t know what it is. Once they get into the program, the crew members police themselves. One officer, Mike Estep, told the visiting group that when fires are raging, they have to pitch in to fight the fires in addition to supervising the inmate crew. Fire runs 16 times faster up a slope, and it ' s harder to get to, especially with hand equipment.
Inmates use such fire-fighting tools as fire rakes, bladder bags, axes and fire flappers.
When fires aren ' t raging, both prisons have carpentry shops where the inmates saw their own lumber, make picnic tables for local churches and tree signs for the parks and perform other wood-working tasks. Fire season starts in October and runs through mid-May.