Public Safety

County Lays Groundwork to Quickly Deploy Inmates in El Niño Response

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With El Niño conditions forecast to bring more rainfall than normal this winter, County Supervisors took another step Tuesday to better prepare the region.

Supervisors voted to be able to quickly contract CAL FIRE to deploy inmate work crews for flooding and other non-fire emergency-related work. A single inmate work crew, for example, can fill about 300 sandbags per hour. The nearly 500 inmates on local work crews are managed by the CAL FIRE San Diego Unit. They live at four camps, located in Boulevard, Rainbow, Warner Springs and at La Cima Conservation Camp in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.

Tuesday’s action sets up a direct agreement between the County and CAL FIRE San Diego Unit, which will allow County officials to immediately access the inmate crews to help. Without this, the County would have to make a request with the state government and then wait for assistance.

RELATED: How to Be El Nino Ready

The arrangement will be similar to what is currently used to gain assistance from inmate crews on other types of work, including firefighting and weed abatement.

For more information on how to prepare your family, business and property for El Niño, visit the County’s El Niño preparedness Web pages in English or Spanish.