FLORENCE, Ariz. — They're not co-workers. They don't call themselves friends or even inmates.
To a man, every prisoner on the Superstition fire crew calls each other "brother".
"It just popped into my head that, OK that’s my brothers," Brandon Smith said. "And I feel good about it."
Smith is two years through a three-year sentence at APSC Florence for aggravated assault. He joined the Superstition crew, he said, to challenge himself.
He was a self-described black sheep of his Navajo family. His mother still lives in Window Rock. He was in college, but unsure of what he wanted to do. He said alcohol led to the fight, which led to his conviction, which led to finding himself.
“It’s taught me a lot of integrity, it’s taught me a lot about myself," Smith said.
Because instead of watching out for only himself in prison, he and the rest of the Superstition crew have come to rely on each other.
"The overnights when people were working our butts off nonstop," Smith said, "We get real grouchy but we learn to live with their grouchiness and we kind of bonded to one another.”
Steven Minton is a sawyer on the crew, manning the chainsaw. He's spending a prison sentence for selling drugs to an undercover cop. During his sentence at Florence, he was approached about joining the fire crew and has been there ever since.
“You get off the yard for a certain amount of time," Minton said, "camp out places, and have a better band of brothers to be around.”
Inmate fire crews are routinely called out during fire season. But unlike some other states, the inmates who volunteer in Arizona do not get time taken off their sentence for their service. They have to do it because they want to.
“When you’re wearing orange you have a certain image that’s already looked upon you," Minton said.
Both Minton and Smith have plans to continue firefighting when they're released from prison. Minton has two years left, Smith has one.
They're hoping the skills and confidence the fire crew has given them can keep them from coming back to Florence.