United States | News & Politics

Reyna pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the 2005 shooting death of Daniel Rodriguez in the San Diego city of Alpine...

Reyna is now part of a growing list of former inmates who will or have been hired full-time by fire departments just California endures massive wildland infernos caused by the climate crisis...

CalFire estimates since 2018, 229 former inmates enrolled in [Ventura Training Center]. Of those, 136 got jobs, the majority with CalFire, and 56 are in camp now.

California governor Gavin Newsom cleared roadblocks to inmates becoming fire firefighters with the signing of a bill... The bill also gave courts the power to expunge inmate firefighters’ criminal records, which had often made it more difficult for former inmates to get hired. The courts can wipe out camp prisoners guilty or nolo contendere pleas, and a plea of not guilty can be entered, or verdicts of guilt to be set aside.

One of the first former camp inmates to have his record expunged is Jose Santana, who trained at VTC, completed the program in the spring of 2021 and got hired soon after by the CalFire Tulare Station Unit.

Santana served three in years in prison for a crime he apologizes for repeatedly and to this day. The ex-convict says while drunk on Jamison whiskey, high on meth and not sleeping for five days, he smashed a liquor bottle into the head of his then girlfriend.