Grand Jury Praises Eel River Conservation Camp, Recommends Better Internet

The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury found something rare in its first report of the 2025-26 session: a county facility it said was working well. At Eel River Conservation Camp #31 in Redway, the jury said it was impressed by the camp’s condition, function and safety, and left with just one recommendation, improve the internet connection.

That matters because Eel River is not a routine jail check. The camp, run cooperatively by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and CAL FIRE, houses convicted men serving non-violent, low-level sentences who volunteer after physical and behavioral screening. Its main job is to provide incarcerated hand crews for fire suppression, but the report said those crews also respond to floods, carry out conservation projects, help with prescribed burns, clear roadside weeds and even clean cemeteries.

The report, titled Fighting Fires, Changing Lives, said the grand jury surveyed 20% of the inmates and found safety precautions in place, equipment up to date, and prisoners healthy, adequately clothed, housed and fed. It also said the men appeared cooperative and respectful, and proud of the work and skills they were gaining in the fence-free rural setting.

That mix of public safety and rehabilitation is what gives the camp its value in a county where wildfire readiness is not an abstraction. Eel River crews work in a part of Humboldt County that regularly depends on quick response, seasonal staffing and partnerships between state and local agencies. The camp’s placement in Redway means it is not just holding people, it is producing labor that can be deployed when fire, flood or vegetation management demands it.

The jury also pointed to recent legislative changes that increased pay, increased time credits and opened the door to post-incarceration expungement for successful participants, creating stronger incentives to complete the program. That is important beyond the camp itself, because the report frames Eel River as a place where correctional policy, workforce development and wildfire response overlap.

A 2025 Humboldt County grand jury report found no recidivism statistics specific to Eel River, but cited a statewide recidivism rate of 25% for inmates who participated for at least a year in special rehabilitative programs such as fire camps. A 2020 county report said Eel River could house 132 inmates and held 71 at the time.

The internet recommendation may sound small next to firefighting and reentry, but in a rural camp where training, communication and coordination matter, it points to a practical gap the county would do well to close.