motion<\/a>\u00a0authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn to oppose a proposed policy change by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) that would ban young people with a history of childhood asthma from participating in the Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp fire training program.<\/p>\nPine Grove is California\u2019s only fire camp for incarcerated youth, providing young men between the ages of 18 and 25 with CAL FIRE training in wildland firefighting. Participants serve on real fire crews, responding to emergencies across the state\u2014including recent deployments to Los Angeles County during the Eaton and Palisades fires.<\/p>\n
\u201cPine Grove is one of the most meaningful and effective rehabilitative programs we have in California,\u201d said Supervisor Hahn during today\u2019s Board meeting. \u201cIt teaches structure, discipline, and gives these young men a real shot at turning their lives around through job training that can lead to a stable, rewarding career as a firefighter.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nThe CDCR plans to enact a new policy starting July 1, 2025, that would prohibit anyone with\u00a0any<\/em>\u00a0history of childhood asthma from participating in Pine Grove\u2014despite the current policy already excluding youth with\u00a0active<\/em>\u00a0asthma. Supervisor Hahn expressed concern that this blanket ban would disproportionately impact youth from Los Angeles County, where rates of childhood asthma are elevated due to decades of environmental injustice, especially in communities near freeways, ports, and industrial zones.<\/p>\n\u201cBlack children in Los Angeles County are almost twice as likely to have asthma compared to their peers,\u201d Hahn said. \u201cThis change will unfairly shut out too many young men from our communities who are eager to serve, rehabilitate, and build a future for themselves \u2013 especially those who grew up in low-income marginalized neighborhoods.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nSupervisor Hahn also emphasized that the proposed restriction goes far beyond the LA County Fire Department’s own policy, which does not ban individuals with a history of asthma from serving as firefighters.<\/p>\n
The motion directs the County\u2019s Chief Executive Office Legislative Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations to send a five-signature letter to the CDCR urging them to abandon the policy change and continue allowing youth with non-active asthma to be evaluated for Pine Grove.<\/p>\n
The decision also comes at a critical time for Los Angeles County\u2019s juvenile justice system. As part of a court-approved plan to depopulate Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, the Probation Department is identifying youth eligible for rehabilitative placement at Pine Grove. Restricting access to the camp could undercut that plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I speak to the youth at Los Padrinos, many tell me they want to go to Pine Grove and become firefighters,\u201d said Hahn. \u201cWe owe it to them to protect that opportunity.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young people in training at Pine...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73590,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73589\/revisions\/73590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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