We're putting prisoners in the L.A. wildfires.The daily wage is 16,000 won.

The New York Times (NYT) reported that correctional authorities have deployed more than 900 prisoners to extinguish the fires, which have been raging in southern California for a week.

The NYT explained in an article on the 11th that this is based on old laws and practices, but it is criticized for giving benefits that fall short of the minimum wage and making them do dangerous work.

According to an official announcement from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, 939 prisoners, including 110 support personnel, have been deployed to combat the forest fires to assist fire authorities.

Prisoners draw fire cordons and remove burning objects to slow the spread of fire, and do not use extinguishing equipment such as hoses.

They will be paid up to $10.24 (W15,645) per day, and $1 (W1,470) per hour will be paid as an additional allowance in emergency situations.

This is significantly lower than California's minimum wage, which is $16.50 (W24,260) per hour.

California prisoners benefit from working one day less than two days in prison if they are put directly into fire extinguishing work.

Correctional authorities reduce the number of days served per day for support personnel who do not directly evolve.

According to a 2022 prisoner labor report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the University of Chicago School of Law, about 1.2 million prisoners are held in federal or state prisons in the United States, who have no right to refuse to do what correctional authorities tell them to do or choose what to do.

It is estimated that 791,500 people, or more than 65% of them, are working.

Eighty percent of them do what's necessary for prison operations, such as feeding, washing dishes, cleaning, and washing, but others do other things in the public or private sector.

Some states pay nothing for most of the prisoners' labor and make them work for free.

The 13th Amendment of the United States, promulgated after the end of the American Civil War, prohibits slavery and "involuntary servitude," but allows exceptions to punishment for committing a crime and being duly convicted of it,

There are so few firefighters to respond to the massive wildfire that foreign firefighters are joining one after another.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an X post on the 12th that he had sent 60 firefighters to the L.A. area.

In addition, the Canadian government has sent extinguishing equipment, such as aircraft for extinguishing wildfires, and is preparing to send additional firefighters to Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta.

The Mexican government also dispatched firefighters to California on the 11th.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is at war with Russia almost on the other side of the world

, also said he was preparing to send firefighters to California, 150 of whom were already ready.