By Sharon Bernstein
The Sacramento Bee
CHOWCHILLA, Calif. — Britaney Gomez was 16 years old and high on weed — as she was most days back then — when she crashed her car in her hometown of Modesto seven years ago, killing two people.
She went to prison, serving out most of a 12-year sentence at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.
But on Tuesday, the 23-year-old was one of five women to graduate from the state’s first training program for female inmates who want to be firefighters when they are released from incarceration. She became the crew leader in the grueling program, funded by Cal Fire and run by a former inmate who became a firefighter upon his release in 2018.
“I’m doing this for my victims,” she said. “So their lives didn’t go in vain.”
California has long used inmate fire crews to help fight the state’s devastating wildfires. Inmates who participate can earn credits toward early release, and some have later found jobs at Cal Fire, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. In recent years, the state has attempted to address problems of recidivism and homelessness that can plague former prisoners by expanding re-entry programs that offer social services as well as job training.
Among them is the Future Fire Academy, which equips participants with accredited training in numerous aspects of fighting wildfires. Upon their release, the formerly incarcerated people will also receive help applying for jobs.
If they have the accredited training and are not deemed to be at risk of re-offending or engaging in violent behavior, jobs are available in agencies that fight wildland fires, said Anthony Pedro, the former inmate who founded the academy. Getting a job in a municipal fire department is much harder — there are additional educational and experience requirements, and applicants have to get their criminal records expunged.
After criticism that the state was making it too hard for inmate firefighters to find jobs after their release, Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020 signed a law making it easier for records of non-violent offenders who have served on prisoner fire crews to have their records expunged. Cal Fire spokesman Ed Fletcher said the agency does not keep track of the number of former inmates who have been hired.
Last month, celebrities Kim Kardashian and Kendall Jenner visited an inmate firefighting camp, a sign of growing interest in the program, including acknowledgment of the risks taken on by participants.
Pedro became a firefighter after serving nine years for armed robbery, hired on at Cal Fire after working on inmate fire crews before his release. He studied hard, living out of his car for a time, and eventually was hired at a small municipal fire department in El Dorado County . Since founding his nonprofit three years ago, he has trained about 100 people — until now all of them men — and says that many have been able to find jobs.
“That’s 100 less people who might recidivate,” he said.
Participants typically are still in custody, living in low-security facilities meant to help ease the process of re-entry. The women who earned their certificates on Tuesday live at a Sacramento -area facility known as a Female Community Reentry Program run by Saint John’s Program for Real Change , a nonprofit group that provides other wraparound services to women and children.
At Tuesday’s graduation at St. John’s Lutheran Church in midtown, participants wearing ankle monitors greeted family members some hadn’t seen for years and settled in for a program of speeches, lunch and tears. The ceremony opened with a video of Whitney Houston singing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and the graduates stood straight as a ramrod, saluting the American flag.
As the ceremony got underway, graduate Jamie Vaughn, 39, dashed off the stage and came back holding a toddler.
“This is my grandbaby, Johanna,” she told the crowd. “This is the first time I’ve met her, today.” Vaughn was convicted of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, possession of a controlled substance and other charges.
Brooklyn Hill, 27, grew up in Redding and dreams of being a paramedic for a municipal fire department. She’s been incarcerated since she was 20 after participating in an armed robbery that left one person dead. She pleaded guilty to armed robbery in an inhabited dwelling. She learned about the firefighting program after transferring to St. John’s earlier this year.
“When you’re gone so long, you don’t even know what’s out there anymore,” she said. “Anything that involves being part of the community I want to do.”
A video played, showing photos of the five women as little girls with their families and then as a team participating in the program, hacking underbrush and developing fitness skills. The song “Girl on Fire” by Alicia Keys played in the background.
“She’s walking on fire,” the singer crooned. “This girl is on fire.”
Gomez, who capped her part of the ceremony with a deep hug to her father, said participating in the two firefighting programs made her feel like a person again.
Her journey started with the inmate firefighting program and culminated with her role as crew chief for the five women who graduated from Future Fire Academy on Tuesday.
“The start to my new life began in 2020 when I got the opportunity to get transferred to the fire station across the street from Chowchilla State Prison ,” she said in a speech to the group.
Until that day, she said, she’d felt like her identity was simply her prisoner number — WG7982.
“Instead I was trained for hundreds of hours, training in blood, sweat and tears literally for the honor of being a first-responder,” Gomez said. “I had the honor to not be viewed as a horrible inmate, but as a firefighter.”
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