Decision-making and unintended consequences
One of the problems with making a decision is that there are almost always unintended consequences to that decision. No matter how you assess and analyze a problem, there's always the risk that your decision will produce results that you never expected. Sometimes you're pleasantly surprised; most times you're not.
Case in point is the State of California's recent decision to reduce overcrowding in state prisons by transferring non-violent criminals to county jails. California counties are understandably upset by this action as they are receiving no money to house the additional inmates or to construct new jails. This controversy was to be expected. What was not expected or considered was the impact of this move on California's response to wildfires.
California maintains a force of about 4,000 volunteer inmates who are specially trained to fight wildfires. The volunteers are housed in special camps and are available for immediate deployment, frequently as the first units on scene. When not fighting fires, they provide conservation support such as clearing debris to reduce the potential fire load in California forests. The transfer of inmates to the counties is expected to reduce this force by at least 1,500 within the next few months.
The sticking point seems to be (surprise!) budget dollars. The State maintains that the $46 dollars a day it takes to maintain an inmate at the camps should be paid by the counties as the inmates are county prisoners. The counties say that the volunteers are State firefighting resources and that the State should bear the costs, allowing the counties to use the money for the additional staff they require for the influx of new inmates. In the absence of an agreement, California will lose the services of more than a third of its trained volunteer force.
It will be interesting to see how much this "cost-saving" measure costs the State in the next fire season.