The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has spent tens of millions of dollars paying staff to act as human fire alarms.
Nearly 90% of California's prisons have fire alarms that are old or broken.
The corrections department estimates a full fix would cost $1.5 billion. So, for now, officers are pulling "fire watch" shifts instead.
Between 2020 and 2025, the state shelled out nearly $50 million to cover the cost of these shifts.
Kristen Cowan is an assistant professor at the University of Buffalo. She studies prison safety and said she was surprised to hear it was even legal to operate with broken fire alarm systems.
"We wouldn't let anyone else live in a place that doesn't have a smoke detector," said Cowan.
But Matt Cate, who was California’s corrections secretary under two governors, thinks this ongoing spending for fire watch is a waste of millions of dollars since fires in prisons are extremely rare.