10News story synopsis: We reported on how fire camps manned by county prisoners doing soft time were used at one time to help cut back the brush and clear dead vegetation that fuel those scary fires. The camps formed a protective arc across the county. This was stopped about 20 years ago. Our investigation centered on the question of why can’t these camps be reopened? Why not get low-risk county prisoners to help clear brush? The California Department of Forestry currently does the same thing with state prisoners.

How & Why we did the story.
The I team story on the Fire Camps evolved from a couple different directions.
A source of mine has spent years pushing for coverage of juvenile court issues. This well-meaning individual is constantly advocating for the kids and parents that get trapped in the system. Juvenile Hall is run by the county’s probation department.
Like most agencies, probation has good people working for it and also some not so good people. What resulted from my knowledge of the department and different sources were a series of 10 News stories about the system and its ugly warts.
In doing the Juvenile Hall stories, I met a number of dedicated people working within the system trying to change it. And one constant I was hearing was how the loss of the fire camps had hurt the community. Juveniles, working in the camps, didn’t have as much energy and idle time to pick fights or figure out whose head to mess with, or to do the other things anger-filled young folks are capable of doing. There was a feeling, I am told, that the young prisoners took pride in their work. They felt their hard work in clearing the hillsides and canyons had value. So did the men who oversaw them in the fire camps. Of course, there was another benefit for San Diego—less brush means less fuel for fires. I often wonder if the fires of 2003 would have been as severe if the fire camps had been up and running at that time.
But the camps went away. While much time has passed and some in the county bureaucracy would prefer to forget the reasons for the camps' disappearance, I haven’t.

Former Sheriff John Duffy and the probation department were in a struggle over budgets and personnel. This bled over into control of the prisoners in the camps.
The Sheriff was a tough hombre and always got his way with the Board of Supervisors, so when push came to shove, the politicos folded. And they did on this issue, like a $20 tent in a strong Santa Ana. No names mentioned here, not even the guy that does talk radio these days. Duffy won and the camps went away. It was politics, power over public safety and let’s face it, it’s hard to sell the idea of the camps if no big fires have happened since the Laguna Fire. The bean counters can come up with a thousand reasons not to do something. Of course, no one would ever imagine Scripps Ranch burning.

So for years, these probation officers and my Juvenile Hall source have been on me about the camps. We did an abbreviated story on the issue after the fires of'03 but never got any traction because of the flood of stories post fire.

But now, here’s the best part of the story. The hero arrives, the calvary shows up and you start to believe.

It began with a chance meeting with Matt Streck. You might see Matt in televised reports at fire scenes. He does the media interviews for the California Department of Forestry at fire scenes. A real stand up guy, if he says something, you can count on it. I had just spoken to my source when Matt happened to stop by 10News. The fire camps were top of mind, so I got into a discussion with Matt about them. He told me how successful CDF viewed their efforts working with state prisoners. But there were not enough crews; there is just too much ground to cover in San Diego County. CDF needs help. I asked Matt if he could find someone at CDF to talk about that need and to get a feel for how the “powers-that-be” felt about the fire camps the county used to run. Like any government agency, the CDF doesn’t like burning its bridges so they are careful talking about another agency's turf. But Matt said he would try. And he came through—big time, with Division Chief Randy Lyle. The Chief says he’s spent “33 fire seasons” with the CDF. Lyle is near retirement and ready to spend a lot of time in the ocean going surfing, which makes sense when you find out his dad worked the kelp beds years ago.

So I asked the Chief, was he willing to talk about the CDF brush abatement work with state prisoners? Yes. How about talking about how much more work needs to be done? Yes, again. How about those county fire camps? No problem. He would tell it like it is. And he did, in an interview at the CDF headquarters parking lot in El Cajon. Division Chief Randy Lyle laid it all out for us. His interview would be most important in getting the County of San Diego to pay attention.

The next element -- talking a former long time probation officer into doing an interview -- was not a problem. He’d been waiting years to tell his story. George Dean stepped up to the plate and belted out all the anger and resentment he felt over the politics involved in the camp closing, how it hurt the kids in the juvenile system and wondered what would have happened if the camps had remained open all these years.

It didn’t take long for the staff at Supervisor Dianne Jacob’s office to “get it.”
Chief of Staff Geoff Patnoe and Media Specialist Jennifer Stone moved quickly to bring the story to the Supervisor’s attention after I called them. For that, I thank them. It’s helpful to get this kind of support because many times the filters around the elected leaders view their role as keeping the media away and to control the ideas and people who have access to the politician in power. (see my previous blog on Fred “the filter king” Sainz)

The Supervisor thought the idea of using low risk prisoners to help control brush made sense and immediately scheduled a meeting with the Sheriff's Department, Probation and the CDF. She tells us it went well but it’s going to be up to the Sheriff’s department to figure out a way to make this happen. It will not be easy. The Sheriff’s department (just like SDPD) has a shortage of officers. That’s going to cause some staffing issues. The other, more hidden obstacle are the old timers still in the county bureaucracy who may see this as a threat. They can kill this idea if they can figure a way to spin it. But hopefully, those in positions of power are a far more progressive bunch than those 20 years ago and can see the wisdom in adding more fire power for reducing fire danger.

Postcript:
The story was reported by Steve Atkinson. And his 10News I-team partner Lauren Reynolds.* Photojournalist Michael Gonzalez hung in with me throughout and helped put together some good television. Plus, thanks goes to Editor Jimmy Villegas who chipped in on our last story. There have been four stories to date. Check them out on this site.

*How we work:
We stay very busy in this business; so many times a producer will work with an anchor like Steve to produce the story. That is the case here. Steve was hustling to put together a tough, difficult story on a new type of white collar crime on the Internet so I ended up researching and writing this one. While my title is managing editor, my first love is producing investigative reports, so I look for chances to keep my hands in that. And it’s especially gratifying when you may be able to do something good for your community.


Worried about low risk prisoners working the brush? Let me know what you think.

jwblog@10news.com