NORTH COUNTY —— Each year California taxpayers save millions of dollars by having some state inmates work on conservation camps, responding to emergencies such as fires and floods and maintaining public land.

Throughout the county, there are about 400 inmates working in four separate, state-run conservation camps. When not responding to urgent situations, they do projects such as repairing fire stations, cleaning up community parks and improving camp grounds.

"These people actually become an asset to the state of California," said Lt. Derrick Taylor, camp commander at La Cima Conservation Camp, located in a rural area about 15 miles south of Julian.

The program has worked so well that the county Grand Jury has recommended extending it to county inmates.

"We just felt it was a ready source of very inexpensive labor," said William Westlake, who was foreman of the Grand Jury in June, when the recommendation was made.

The county Sheriff's Department recently rejected the idea because of a lack of supervisory personnel and available prisoners, Assistant Sheriff Dennis Runyen said.

Only a third of the nearly 5,000 inmates in county jail are eligible for work release, he said, and those lower-level prisoners are already used for important jobs in the jails. The department is already understaffed and would not have enough people to supervise inmates performing off-site work, Runyen said. This would make it nearly impossible to allow inmates to fight fires while continuing to operate safe jails, he said.

Though county prisoners won't be used on the fire crews, the county gained two fire crews of state inmates last year when the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reopened the La Cima camp. Shortly before the 2003 Cedar fire, CDF officials decided to close the camp because of budget cuts, CDF Capt. Daryll Pina said.

The county's four camps are strategically located in rural areas where wildfires are more common —— one near Fallbrook, one near Warner Springs, one near Boulevard in the south-east corner of the county and La Cima near Julian.

The program offers inmates a chance to trade hard work for additional freedom, with perks such as a hobby room, two television rooms, a game room and even a camp dog.

"You feel less like a prisoner," inmate Kris Thornton said. "You feel like you're actually doing something positive, which a lot of these guys haven't had a lot of in their lives."

Though they have time to relax and pursue hobbies, Thornton said the crews in the camps have to work hard.

"If you can make it here, there's no reason in the world you can't find a job and keep it (after being released)," he said.

The crews are available year-round for all types of emergencies, including wildfires, floods, search-and-rescue missions and earthquakes. Inmates also perform everyday tasks such as cooking, repairs, hair cutting and clothing alterations, making the camps self-sufficient.

During fires, they are often responsible for cutting fire lines, which is strenuous and extremely important, said Bill Clayton, a division chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

"Without them, it'd be really, really tough to fight these fires," he said.

When fighting fires, the inmates make $1 an hour. Most make about $1.50 a day doing day-to-day work. Workers with more specialized abilities can make up to $3.90 a day.

Depending on the crime with which they were charged, some inmates are offered early release after working at the camps. Some get as many as two days taken from their sentence for every day worked, others get no reduction.

The state corrections and forestry departments have operated the camps together since 1946. The CDF provides the facility and training and the Department of Corrections supplies the manpower.

"We're basically the landlord," Pina said. "They're the tenant."

Camp members are selected from minimum security prisoners at the Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown, about 50 miles west of Yosemite National Park. Most of the inmates chosen for the program are serving one to five years for less serious crimes such as drug offenses or burglary.

Since the sentences are relatively short, escape is rare. Most of the facilities don't even have fences.

"We're just trying to do our little time and go home," Thornton said.

Once they're released, few of the people who served time on the work crews end up back in prison, Taylor said, which also saves taxpayers' money.

By building unity, the camps help prisoners get away from old habits and prison mentality, said Ronie Inman, an inmate at La Cima.

"In here you can breath a sign of relief," he said. "It's the next best thing to home."

Contact staff writer Stacy Brandt at (760) 761-4414 or sbrandt@nctimes.com.