discovering new sense of self-esteem : women trade prison cells for hard labor on fire lines

A dusty red fire truck drove into the Ensina Canyon fire camp on the 13 th, and on the day of cleaning up the bushes in the Santa Monica Mountains, full of tired firefighters came home.
The crew photographed the fine brown dust from their overalls.
Their big black boots turned heavy as they jumped from the transport to the ground.
Firefighters then stripped off their hard hats and work gloves.
Long hair folds come into view, and the colorful oval shape of the pink nail polish captures the bright sunshine.
The 100 Women in Fire Camp 13, including themselves, surprised everyone.
They are prisoners. -
Heavy criminals-
Sent to the camp from the flourra Women\'s Association in California, the agency\'s population has doubled since 1981, an unprecedented rate.
Isolated above Malibu, in a simple military camp on a road above Malibu-
No one is considered hard. core criminals--
The hard-working life that was once reserved for male prisoners traded crowded cells.
The former secretaries, housewives and shop assistants pay about $2 a day for prison pay, lifting the giant Combo Axe and digging tools that firefighters call Pulaskis, waving the deafening chainsaw, pass through the cake like a knife and through the scrub Wood.
\"I have been a fireman for 20 years, and frankly, I am very impressed,\" said the Los Angeles County fire chief . \".
Bob Martin, the owner of the camp, the woman called it a \"hat \".
\"These women are trained by Martin and his team of county fire chief experts, dressed in full gear and able to cut three
There\'s a miles of fire in just three days.
A lot of people are 6,500 veterans.
In last October, in the acre Decker Canyon fire in Malibu, they and 1,000 other prisoners and professional firefighters were thought to have saved dozens of houses.
The women were beaten up as clients in an expensive field.
\"Look at my legs\" \"I have lost 20 pounds and look at my legs!
Rita Tatum pounding, 32, said with her thigh.
\"They are hard and hard like rocks.
Martin said that last fall, when the Bush fire happened, my Foreman\'s first reaction was, \'Okay, Where Are We hiding these women? \'. . .
We had expected them to do 75% or 80% of what male prisoners have been doing.
But we got more than 100% from women.
We\'re talking about General Patton.
After that, Martin said: \"Men want women to stand in front.
\"The camps opened last summer were co-funded by county forest administrators, fire fighters and the National Corrections Department.
This is one of only two female prisoner fire camps in California.
The other is located in San Diego County and opened in 1983.
The two camps are considered the only such camps in the United States, the result of a court order requiring California prisons to give female prisoners the same training opportunities as men.
Welfare fraudsters convicted of crimes such as drug trade, welfare fraud and robbery, many of whom do not like hard work and pray for the day they can return to their families.
People who don\'t like fire fighting but work hard are often assigned less strict \"in-
Car repairman and maintenance supervisor.
\"No one will tell you the truth about this place,\" said a woman who did not want to be named . \".
Hard work, exercise, painful-it\'s the worst.
\"But since the opening of the camp, only two women have asked to be sent back to prison, and less than a dozen women have been sent back to prison because they cannot physically or emotionally cut the prison.
The vast majority say they appreciate being selected from the prison population ---
No matter whether there is any effort.
For example, there is Opie, called Opie by the captain, because she looks more like a fresh person
The scrubbed characters in The Andy Griffith Show are more prisoners than the guilty rap. The 22-year-
The old man from Oroville, named Tony Marbury, said she was \"very grateful\" for being sent to the camp, where she put in time on the last day of April 18.
She was assigned there for the first time in frontra, \"We got together with the sick woman ---
Those who do crazy things, \"she said.
\"You were stabbed inside, the woman who was tortured inside, and sexually assaulted by other women.
Thank God, we don\'t have this here.
\"And Petra Sanchez, who found out she wanted to be a fireman most.
\"I like the job,\" said Sanchez, 39 \".
\"I know it\'s a hard job and there\'s a lot of work to do and I still have a long time to go until 1987.
But I like the job.
I find out how much I like to help others. . . .
I feel like I\'m part of something good.
\"The camp is partly a prison and partly an outdoor activity.
No bar, no lock, not even the door through the main entrance.
Seven mandatory headcounts per day, usually one surprise, are the only reminders that women are not free.
\"No matter where you go, there is a way to get out of here.
But no one did that, \"said Estella herndez, 34, a camp carpenter whose Indian name was night star.
A pond at the entrance often had ducks and peacocks, and resourceful Martin said he had \"rummaged somewhere.
\"The rich green foothills surround the low buildings of the compound, giving the feeling of a wilderness getaway. Chewy and Max (
Abbreviation of longest sentence)
Amiable wild dog, gently growling and swinging at strangers.
As Martin prepares to spray the breath deodorant into the unlucky chewy mouth, laughter rings in a distant corner of the camp.
The sweepers work from working days to 4 p for women working for the county fire department. m.
Dry brush, sand-bagging flood-
Threatening houses and putting out fires.
After that, they had to rely on themselves.
Some call home while others lift weights or sunbathe near the bar --style dorms.
The women said that the food was better than that in the prison, and that in the event of a fire, they ate particularly well, and they put down their steaks and sausages and let them keep rolling.
When they are really fighting the fire, the hourly wage will rise to $1.
On weekends, visitors are allowed to enter the camp most of the day.
Husbands and children can spend the night in apartments designed for couple visits, but waiting for this privilege can be up to several months.
Anita sister, 49, said: \"When my daughter came here, she said, \'God, it looks like a camp I went to when I was a child. \'\".
Repair, Polish and maintain fire fighting tools, one of the most importantcamper duties.
The friendly grandmother from Santa Monica drew an uncoordinated picture.
Her curly, slightly gray hair was flattened by an industrial pair of goggles, and she hung a Pulaski on a buzzing wheel.
In the subsequent metal noise, she gritted her teeth.
The white sparks passed by her.
Under the protection of a heavy bib, SIST nodded towards the glittering axe.
\"I like tools, you know?
She shouted on the harsh wheels.
\"It\'s hard work, but what?
I grind every tool here and paint it!
Then I said, hey, this is a camp for girls, so why not pink?
So I drew (tool room)
Bright floor, shocking pink!
\"Many prisoners are mothers;
Several are grandmothers.
As they talk about their children, their faces alternate with a light of pride, and become serious with worries. One 29-year-old has a teen-
The son told his friend that his mother was not in college.
She wants them to be consulted together when she goes out so we can fix the problem, you know?
\"Shadi Poma, son of another family, has a 4-year-
She was a baby\'s old son when she went to prison.
He called her by name and knew that the others were mothers.
\"When I called, he said, \'Hi Shadi, how are you?
\"He doesn\'t understand,\" she said . \"
She hid pictures of three children in the belly of two children. foot-
Wide lockers with most of her property.
\"I can\'t look at them,\" Poma said slowly . \". \"It hurts.
I put them in my locker. Being a first-
I have never been in prison before, and I find myself trying to live two lives. . .
You can\'t do that.
\"I have a friend who is in prison and he is not outside right now and does a good job outside,\" she said . \".
\"Don\'t worry about the weather, let the wind blow,\" he said.
You can\'t do anything about things outside.
\"Women, some people who groan and coaxed Martin ---
\"Let\'s take a day off, shall we? \"--
Start around 6: 30 every working day. m.
After breakfast was a break and a hard hike at the nearby foothills.
In honor of the captain and Foreman, they named each trail with a rich meaning: Martin\'s mother, Bonas Buster, and Bodi\'s bitch.
The woman said that the problem with Birdy\'s bitch is not how severe it is to make your thighs ache, nor how fast it makes your knees uncooperative, even how much you wish you were back in prison. Nope.
They say the problem with Birdy is where you end when the foreman writes your name on his clipboard at the end of the punishment trip.
Always 80-
Degree in the morning, just as she was wearing thick hiking boots Kyong (Tina)
Jego jumps in the gray room.
At Birdy\'s last stop, the green bushes pulled up.
Her black head is like a yo-yo.
Yo, disappear, then reproduce in wild wood.
Jago is always the first to finish.
\"The chicken is an animal, just like the football coach gloating over his star tackle,\" Martin said with satisfaction . \".
\"I don\'t need to run with them, but I think it forms a bond,\" he said . \".
\"When I was really in a hurry, I was right between Jago and the package behind us. At 5-foot-
She is my best body girl.
Great endurance.
Not far from her was 30-year-old Kapiolani Neely, who cheered and encouraged her \"pirate\" on the mountain ---
Clear the fire buddy of Neely chain saw cut brush. \"C\'mon! \" Neely cried.
The Pacer Sandra uriquet, who was a few yards behind her, was panting and unable to respond.
\"It\'s really cruel,\" Martin said . \"
\"The first time a brand new product went on sale, they were almost dead and really almost dead.
You will hear from women, they are not joking.
\"When they came here, I told them, \'If you\'re looking forward to a relaxing job, you\'re in the wrong place.
\"The magic of the camp is part of the magic of Camp 13. Lt.
Maxine Wortham, a senior prison official at the camp, said the work and sense of achievement gave these women something to hope.
\"Back in prison, their way of life is fully controlled every moment,\" says waterham . \".
\"But the times have changed, and now people have different views on women, who have equal rights.
So they have a camp, what are they doing here? -
It\'s not like someone forced them. -
They do it themselves.
\"Neely, known as Kappy, is probably the strongest and largest woman in the camp.
Martin said she could climb a tree with a chainsaw and climb a tree like any man.
She won the respect of women, but not just because of her physique.
\"When I first went to prison, I thought my four-year life would be wasted,\" Neely said . \".
\"You learned a lot,\" I feel different now.
All the captain has to do is point me in the direction and I\'m gone.
My chainsaw did not stop after that.
I can take down a chain saw and have nothing until I have.
Science of dealing with wildlife
Fire on land, you learned so much. . . .
This is very painful for me--
Because I can say it\'s not wasted.
Wotham, who was assigned to the camp this spring, said when she arrived, \"I\'m ready to say, \'No!
This is the direction of its development.
But then I found out these women didn\'t need them at all.
There is a great sense of independence in completing the work.
Women are like that.
County officials said: \"The friendship between these women is completely different from the painful faction formed in the male prison fire brigade.
The women described their response as \"hanging dead,\" Martin said \".
\"As a woman walks down the path, we begin to notice this and two people will go and help her,\" Martin said . \".
\"For men, maybe someone will go back, maybe not.
Among these girls, what we lack is physical dexterity, and we are purely instinctive.
Their attitude is incredible. . . .
I will go back and say, \'Hello?
They say, \'We can hang our hats.
\"He said that Karen Glen, the most heavyweight woman in the camp, couldn\'t walk past the trail on the first day and was pushed by two women she barely knew.
Glen, nicknamed onion, laughed at the memory.
\"You should have seen other girls help me!
I have lost so much since November-What is the word? --
More bodybuilding than when I got here.
\"Nevertheless, the women who helped Glen were written under the camp rules and asked them to complete Martin\'s mother in 45 minutes.
Too much writing.
For violations such as conversations or absenteeism, prisoners may be assigned additional duties of work.
On top of that, they can be punished by taking less \"good behavior\" time out of the sentence.
\"This is an automatic write-
\"Get up from the captain and say they didn\'t finish the run, or whatever, but they took the risk for me,\" she said . \".
\"This camp is very good.
Diana bedanggu, 37, said she didn\'t mind writing the article. up.
\"If we had a great day for our Foreman, they would take us to the beach for an hour or do some good for us,\" Bettencourt said . \".
\"If you don\'t do it as expected, it\'s all up to you.
Martin said: \"While this camp has barely escaped the common ethnic tensions and personality differences in prisons, only two or three battles have erupted.
The women who encouraged the correctional staff, the captain and the county Foreman to get rid of the negative attitude of the prison was their credit.
Shadi Poma, Martin\'s secretary and one of the best women, said: \"It takes a special woman to hang in the fire brigade. liked inmates.
\"But do you know what the real reason for this camp is?
The camp consists of correctional officers, Foreman and captain. Martin.
\"The 31-year-old hotlisa Whatley, who left marrisville, Northern California, said she had a hard time adjusting to the life of running away from home,\" and was in trouble ---
It\'s the first time.
She said: \"The guards at the camp, like her advisers, really understand me.
They are not like typical prison guards. they are human.
Poma said the captain\'s favorite sentence was: \"Shadi, tell me your success story when you come out.
I want to hear your success story.
\"Baby, captain is great,\" said Poma . \".
\"I work with him every day.
Sometimes, side by side for a long time.
He is a man who is respected like a father or a hero.
Some women here think the important thing is to go out and forgive my expression, but, go to bed and take drugs.
What I have learned is that when I go out, I will live a different life.
\"Because he and the foreman have a very close relationship with these women, Martin has strict rules to stop sexual gestures, imply conversation and even swear.
Martin, married and a devout Mormon, said he and his men were \"the first truly decent man\" many women have ever seen \".
The \"good man\" captain and foreman did not live in the camp.
However, Martin said, \"the boy --
The situation of girls is one of the issues we are most concerned about.
We have 100 women. let\'s face it. they are very vulnerable. . . .
We are good men, white knights.
\"A woman who is not emotionally harmonious is called\" father\"
\"Daughter\" spoke to him.
Those who have serious problems, and those who face being sent back to the agency, will be given the last chance to clean up the history.
Although Martin joked that the prisoners \"did not come because they sang too loudly in the church,\" he explained this with great pains --
Core criminals are not allowed.
\"She may be the cutest girl on Earth, but she has blown someone away and she can\'t come here,\" he said . \".
\"We do not accept convicted murderers and kidnappers.
\"Arsonists are also not allowed for obvious reasons.
For women convicted of manslaughter, there are some exceptions in cases where their prison records are excellent.
For example, Poma was convicted of manslaughter after witnessing a homicide in the drug trade.
She has been in prison since 1982, and there is still more than a year left, and she is considered one of the long prisonstimers.
\"I\'m very lucky,\" she said . \"
\"I have to ask and beg to come here ---
Beg, beg, beg (
California Women\'s Association).
It took a year, am I happy when they say OK? Huh!
I\'m going to cry.
22-year-old Rose Menharez, talking about her past life on the street, sounds like a much older woman, a vague whirlwind of drugs and crime.
But in the camp she slept with a stuffed animal.
The lockers by her bed were packed like a closet that was about to avalanche.
Next to shampoo, conditioner and Miracle Whip is packed with Piko Pitt chili sauce.
Pearl nail polish and cosmetics
Filled with her dust.
Covered hiking boots.
A slim young woman who shyly turns her face to the ground when she laughs, so no one can see her missing front teeth.
Menharez has a son, 5, called Jimmy.
She couldn\'t wait to hug him again.
\"He missed me very much,\" she said . \"
\"My sister and brother told him, \'learn this song, and then you can sing it to your mother when she calls you.
He wants to do real good for me.
I am very grateful to me for having my mom, brother and sister and I am glad they are straight because it is the only way to raise good children.
When you were young, you had a great environment around you and I think you already had everything.
\"Be an Afghan and walk to the far corner of her locker and finally draw a huge burgundy, pink and creamy Afghan from the depths.
She is doing it for someone at home.
She desperately wants to be with her family.
\"When it comes to Christmas and birthdays, I said, \'God, what am I going to give them? \'?
But now, Menares is a saw. Girls in Camp 13
To make sure she came back to her son with a dress, she wore a pair of overalls with four pieces of clothinginch-
Torn left leg--
This reminds her of an unfortunate incident that almost disabled her for life.
When a construction worker threw a wood on the hill above her and did not know that she was right down, she was walking through the bushes.
The impact blew the wind out of her lungs and pushed the buzzing chain over her leg.
When the chain went through her jeans, it grabbed her calf tightly.
\"We have to be very cautious because you can spend your life without hands, or you can let others live without hands,\" she said . \".
\"That\'s why I saw-
Girls and bucker work as volunteers.
I like to put my cowboy by my side when we work and her hand on my shoulder so I know where she is.
\"The sobriety of their tasks gives many women a new perspective on life outside.
\"The camp is changing the values of girls,\" Anita sister said . \".
\"Many of them are drug demons;
They are used to pushing hust all the time.
Now they see the dead, they go through the bushes to retrieve the body or stop the fire, and they start to see the real situation outside.
\"Getting back to BodyMartin and Wortham said that these women\'s experiences in the camp will be rewarded in the outside world.
After a series of bush fires ended last fall, Martin said he sat them down and told them: \"You are no longer a prisoner, you are a fireman.
This is a very prestigious thing.
\"Today, dozens of released women kept in touch and sent postcards to Martin and the guards with news of their new life ---
Especially their children and new jobs.
\"They always say how much they make in an hour: $5. 25, or $6. 28. Exactly.
Then they said, can you believe it?
I said, guess what? You can do it.
\"But, in crappy English, Kyong Jago often made her laugh quickly from the captain, who summed up the best sentence:\" When I go out, \"she said, \"I really have to cheer up.