Why California prisons are using their own employees as human fire alarms

California is spending tens of millions of dollars each year paying prison employees to visually monitor for fires, rather than upgrading the state's fire alarm systems. Per CalMatters, the state spent nearly fifty million dollars on fire watch staffing between twenty twenty and twenty twenty-five, with corrections employees logging roughly two hundred seventy thousand hours scanning for smoke and fire. California estimates it would cost one point five billion dollars to replace deficient fire alarm systems across all thirty-one state prisons—so the department has opted for the ongoing staffing workaround instead. The state is on track to spend roughly forty million dollars this year on fire watch coverage, about twenty-five million dollars more than budgeted. Some experts worry that human monitoring could delay fire detection and increase safety risks. Others counter that large-scale prison fires are extremely rare, given that prisons are concrete-and-steel structures with attached fire departments. The state is piloting lower-cost fire watch positions to trim expenses, but the broader question remains: whether to invest in permanent infrastructure or continue the annual staffing fix.

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