<story><title>‘The Senator Be Embezzling’</title><url>http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/mag-prison-smith-213098</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>daltonlp</author><text>By contrast:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.themarshallproject.org&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;19&amp;#x2F;prisoners-who-fight-wildfires-in-california-an-insider-s-look&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.themarshallproject.org&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;19&amp;#x2F;prisoners-who-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;I forgot I was incarcerated sometimes. The staff treated you like a human, not a number.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;I’d say it was a way more liberal place, with way less of the prison politics. At the camp, everyone wasn’t segregated by race, like it was in prison. And the power dynamics and the violence you see on the prison yard, the ‘survival of the fittest’ stuff — that was hardly there at all.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;There were enough of the tough guys there that I had thought the same politics would still hold true, but I learned that fewer total men, plus more freedom for those men, equals a safer place than an overcrowded yard.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;You’re still counting down the days until you go home; it’s not like you want to stay there. But fighting fires, man, that is so much safer than being in prison.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;I saw guys fall off cliffs and get pretty injured, chainsaw injuries, burns, heat stroke.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;It was so physically demanding — but I have to say, it was an honor, a privilege, and a gift to be doing it. Every day, we wanted to prove we were better than the professional firefighters who were there. And it made me understand how much good I could do and how proud of myself I could be at the end of the day, which never happened in prison.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>‘The Senator Be Embezzling’</title><url>http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/mag-prison-smith-213098</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>mabbo</author><text>If prisons were paid based on recidivism rates rather than &amp;quot;keeping a human alive for X years&amp;quot;, I suspect we&amp;#x27;d see more humanity in how we treat prisoners.</text></comment>