inmate work program

fire suppression


In order to protect the state from the ravages of wildfire, the Department of Corrections maintains a wildfire-fighting unit made up of inmates and correctional staff. These inmates and staff have passed the physical requirements and completed the training necessary to become certified fire fighters. This group has become a major component of the state’s fire fighting capability.

From state FY 1999 through September 2007, inmates had worked more than 174-thousand hours on fires.

The inmate fire fighters continue to help prevent potential forest fires throughout the year. Inmates have been engaged in fire suppression activities in Custer State Park and on U.S. Forest Service lands in the Black Hills, cutting dead, dying and broken trees, creating new fire lines, thinning over grown stands of brush pine and eliminating the potential in this area for large devastating wild fires.


Click on the picture(s) below to see a larger version.

Inmate crews work the Battle Creek Fire in August 2002. 

Inmate crews work the Battle Creek Fire in August 2002. 

Inmate crews work the Battle Creek Fire in August 2002.

Inmate thining dead trees to prevent forest fires.

Inmates thining dead trees to prevent forest fires.
Inmates thin U.S. Forest property in Spearfish Canyon in July 2004.

Inmate crews burn the dried slash piles in the winter.

Inmate crews burn the dried slash piles in the winter.