Daily Digit: Inmates are working alongside firefighters for $2 per day.

Daily Digit is the story behind the numbers that make our world work. Today we’re looking at inmates who are working alongside firefighters in California. For $2 a day, inmates have been assisting the West Coast firefighters. They earn additional $1 per hour when they battle fires. California firefighters make an average of $264 per day, not including overtime. So employing inmates saves the state up to $100 million annually. But despite receiving training and risking their lives, prisoners are banned from becoming firefighters when they are freed. Some call this inmate rehabilitation, but critics have called the practice “slave labor.”