By ETHAN SWOPE and TRÂN NGUYỄN, Associated Press

Inmate firefighters in California will receive higher pay and the state will make permanent firefighting camps that train and educate young offenders under two laws signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

California state agencies and the Los Angeles County fire department run 35 “fire camps” where inmates train to become certified wildland firefighters. More than 1,100 inmate firefighters worked alongside state firefighters to stop wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year that leveled neighborhoods and killed at least 30 people.

The Youth Offender Program, run out of the Pine Grove Conservation Camp and Growlesberg Conservation Camp in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, specifically trains inmates under 25 to battle wildfires. The participants a

See Full Page