A newspaper-style inventory and description of the CALFIRE Inmate Program in California, as my individual research project for a studio mapping the incarceral landscape of New Jersey. This project used media representation of the program to tell the story of the program’s inmates, their duties in the fire prevention landscape of California, and their lives within the program’s system.
The historic extents of wildfires in California from 1980 through 2020, overlaid with the locations of inmate campsites. On the right is a timeline of all wildfire deaths associated with this specific program, and the highlighted names are inmates.A description of just a few of the camps, excerpts taken from the Cal FIRE website’s own descriptions of these camps. Dark highlights identify the unique traits of each campsite. Through articles from the Sacramento Bee, San Diego Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle, I looked at public media’s descriptions of the program. The highlighted sections are the only places where these articles specifically mention the inmates themselves, rather than the fires or the program. In 2015, California passed a law that allows formerly incarcerated individuals to become full firefighters after release. Through the same set of media outlets, I looked at the difference in representation of these inmates between pre-2015 and post-2017, when the law went into full effect. This exploration ends with stories from the inmates themselves, via the California prison’s website, about how this program has changed their lives in their families and communities.
Tatiène Guia Digital Portfolio 
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