On another board I'm on there was a discussion about prisoners out west fighting fires. Everyone was saying what a good job they were doing. But we won't let people with felonies in the fire service. Delaware recently passed a law concerning this. If it's okay for hard core prisoners to go out and fight fires why can't someone who made a mistake 5-10-15 years okay and has been clean ever since do it?

Am I the only one with a issue about this?

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My vol. dept. the members are considered employees of the town, insurance and workman's comp coverage, and felons can't be public workers here.
In Georgia we have a very active and successful inmate firefighter program. In many small cities, inmate firefighters are the city's only fire protection.

Under Georgia Law, convicted Felons cannot be a firefighter for 10 years following their conviction, but ex-cons who went through a prison firefighter program can be certified non-inmate firefighters after only five years following their conviction. The recidivism rate among inmate firefighters is almost nonexistent.

Amen Chief!
Its stupid... Just cause you screwed up years ago like when you were a kid doesnt mean you should be banned from joining the fire service and it needs to be changed
I'm proud to say I've never been convicted of a felony.

Please tell that the dirtbag who broke into your house was at least charged with felony burglary for breaking into your house. It sucks that you got the shaft for just defending yourself. Stay safe!
I would! Thank you for the job you do..I was first on the scene on a structure fire a few months ago,I was first in and it seemed like it took for ever for another truck to get there..I don't remember asking any of them who they were I was just glad they came.. Most of them did a good job but several told me that they couldn't pack out for different reasons so I had to go back in..I wish I had more guys like you show up.like I said before if they can do the job give it to them.
I've been in a post like this before and my thoughts are still the same and I know you don't like to hear it Paul but I feel that if it is a non-violent conviction then there should be no reason the person can't be a FF.Tax evasion is a serious offence but because you kept some money from the IRS does that mean you shouldn't and can't run a nozzle,Of course not.If you raped and murdered a kid or for that matter anyone should you be on a nozzle,hell no!! If like was said in the other post that an 18 yr old is with a 15 yr old and one day she gets a burr up her ass and screams rape which "technically" it is in the eyes of the law but he didn't it was was a mutual relationship that just went sour and he gets the shitty end of the stick should he be on the nozzle by all means in my eyes cause he "technically" did nothing wrong but fell in love with a underage girl happens everyday.
I also give you an example of a guy that one day was arguing with his wife and and their kid dumped out his toybox and she went in and started slapping their 4 yr old in the ass and head and he went in the room and grabbed her by the shirt and pulled her away from the kid and he was charged with domestic violence and ended up with a criminal record for protecting his kid from his own mother.Now should he be able to get on a hose line.If you say no then I'm glad your not my Cheif cause that guy was me.I had a record for that which would have potentially kept me from doing my FF job and she got nothing for slapping my son around because she woke up pissed off and decided that it would be good to beat her kid and have me arrested and charged and almost thrown in jail for 90 days all in a matter of an hour.Sound fair to you Paul?
What we are trying to say is that there are innocent people out there and being in corrections you are probably oblivious to it because everyone of them in there will tell you they are innocent but there are some that are truely innocent and others that have raps that are non-violent that should not hamper their dream of being an FF.It boils down to don't just shut the door in there face take a good hard look at their circumstance first and if it a violent crime then by all means turn them away but make sure it wasn't a instance like I found myself in before you do.
Thats the best way I can word this and I hope it makes sense to you this time because you weren't willing to listen the last time.
Every one deserves a chance to prove them selves, that being said, where do you draw the line on what you will and not allow. will you allow a murderer on ect...
Yeah we recently had to do criminal background checks as well.If we had a felony we couldn't join...I was in jail about 5 years ago over a misdemeanor and they kinda frowned at me over it but it wasn't a felony so they couldn't kick me off for it.A friend of mines GF tried to join and they did a check on her and she had a Felony so they wouldn't let her join so my friend decides to quit since they wouldn't let her on.I don't know if he shoulda done that or not.
Once again, there's a difference between making a mistake(bouncing a check) and committing a felony. A felony isn't just some mistake. There's enough shi*t bags on this job. Why hire more?
I have only seen one prisoner crew work. They showed up in a van and immediately started working. It was a church collapse and they did everything they could with what they had to help the injured and trapped. When the actual local fire department got there they had one squirt pumper with 50 ft of hose TOTAL on the truck, and only two people from the department showed up. So if it hadn't been for those prisoners we (the EMS crews) would have been screwed.

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