STORY: “I do believe one thing for sure: that people deserve a second chance…”
Kenyatta Bridges is part of an elite team of incarcerated firefighters in Washington state.
:: Stevens County, Washington
Today’s task is working on a prescribed burn in a national forest in the Pacific Northwest.
The 34-year-old is part of a program that aims to train prisoners so they can work as civilian firefighters when their sentences are up.
:: October 2023
Reuters was granted exclusive access to the program over three months.
:: Kenyatta Bridges, Crew member
“We all made bad decisions in our life. Some of us got caught, some of us didn’t. But we learned from our mistakes. And I can say that about every other guy that’s on the crew I run with as well.”
Bridges was handed a 10-year sentence for manslaughter in a 2014 gang-affiliated shooting.
:: Spokane, Washington
He's wrapping up that sentence at the Brownstone Reentry Center, a minimum security facility in downtown Spokane.
BRIDGES: “You can wear your own clothes. You can wear your own shoes. You don’t need to have the same look as everybody else. But it’s the sense of freedom as well. You can go to the store, handle things you need to handle. And you can see your family.”
Bridges says firefighting has been a game changer.
“There’s never such a thing as too late.”
:: August 2023
His team is called Arcadia 20.
On this day in late August, members are hunting for hot spots after a fire near Spokane.
On other days they might be monitoring a suppressed fire or chopping down trees for forest management.
The Pacific Northwest is struggling with the effects of climate change.
There are higher-than-normal chances of wildfires and a longer season this year, according to state meteorologists.
The Arcadia 20 members are trained to join what are known as ‘hand crews’: teams of around two dozen firefighters who work and camp near the front lines of active wildfires...
Often hiking long distances and carrying gear to reach remote areas.
“Sometimes we hike up a mountain you be like ‘Why am I doing this?’. You know, like I'm out of breath. I'm tired. It's hot out here. These flames is hot. My water's hot. I'm just super annoyed. But you see, the fellas are right there with you going through the same thing and it's like, ‘okay’. And then you also know that you're helping give back to the community. You're helping somebody as much as you can. So it's like all of these things combined together keeps me pushing.”
BEN HOOD: “We need people out there that are willing to do this work. It's hard, it's strenuous, can be underpaid and under-appreciated sometimes. But, once you love it, you just kind of know, we call it getting bit with the fire bug, once you get bit with it you’re hooked in. It becomes part of who you are. It becomes more than just a job, it becomes a lifestyle.”
Ben Hood is a crew supervisor with the state's Department of Natural Resources, or DNR.
He helps select possible Arcadia 20 crew members from about 230 inmates in the state’s regular prison firefighting camps.
Hood’s agency, along with the one in the corrections department, recruit up to 20 men like Bridges for the year-round crew.
:: Ben Hood, Crew Superintendent, Department of Natural Resources
“He's hard working. He's motivated, you know, he's doing everything that you would want him to do. He's becoming one of those leaders. He’s good with the chainsaw. He doesn’t know how to quit working. He’s physically capable of the job. He’s what you want in a firefighter.”
“They treat you like a human. You don't get that much anymore. When they, when a lot of people find out your record and your background, no matter what it was, you don't really get that, they judge you right off of that like, 'oh, okay, this guy's a little sketchy he’s been in prison.’ No, they just like ‘hey, you’re human, you’re a DNR employee, this is who you are, that’s how I see you.'"
:: Thurston County, Washington
About 350 miles away, prisoner Timothy Bullock is up for a spot on the elite team later this year.
He's with one of the regular prison firefighting camps.
And has been working in a mobile kitchen, serving up meals to about a thousand wildland firefighters a day.
The electrician was jailed for second-degree assault stemming from a domestic dispute.
:: Timothy Bullock, Crew member
“I was, I used to drink quite a bit. So, it's a, it was just a split decision. It was a terrible mistake on my part that affected other people, people I cared about. So it's hard dealing with that. But I've gone past that and I'm just working on being the best me.”
“You know, at the end of the day, we accomplished something. It feels good, you know, saving people's property or, you know, what have - people's lives, even for that matter of, you know, depending on the situation. So it's just very, uh, a very awesome feeling once we do the job that we do and we do it right and do a good job.”
According to DNR officials, a high-earning prisoner on a regular camp crew made up to $11,000 last year….
While an Arcadia member earned up to $60,000.
That’s more than some staff in the state’s correctional system, including the facility where Bridges is serving his sentence, according to its manager.
Roy Hardin was an architect of the Arcadia 20 crew, along with Hood.
He thinks other state agencies across the U.S. could take a page out of Washington’s playbook.
:: Roy Hardin, Arcadia 20 crew liaison
“You know, the science is there. If a person is employed, has a really good job right when they get out of prison, they're not homeless, they’re probably not going to come back.”
:: Bridges started a job in a civilian fire
crew on June 3, following his release
:: He told Reuters he's saving up for an apartment
:: and excited for the next chapter of his life
“You know, so it's like I made mistakes, you guys know that. But you also showed me that I can do some good too, and you know that I'm worth, I have a worth.”
