SAN DIEGO — The pop-pop-pop of gunfire cracked just as the rain started to fall in grisly synchronicity. Then the screams began.

Within moments, civilians lay strewn across the ground, some lifeless, others writhing in pain. Blood flowed in streams that pooled with the rainwater on the muddying ground littered with shell casings.

Three gunmen quickly opened fire on a San Diego County Sheriff’s Department armored BearCat truck arriving in response. It crawled along an alleyway. Half a dozen SWAT members pointed rifles into open doorways or fired back from behind corners.

One assailant, wearing black gloves and a graying black beard, stood on a third-floor apartment balcony and, as deputies came closer, threw a Molotov cocktail at two white cars parked below. The explosion sent a blast of heat and sound, its boom punctuated by the gunman’s AK-47.

“Help me!” bellowed a man rolling on the ground, blood shooting from his severed leg. Another man groaned next to him, hidden by smoke billowing around the cars.

It seemed like something out of an action movie. And, in a way, it was.

The rounds were blanks, the Molotov cocktail wasn’t lit, the smoke came from a machine. The explosion was controlled, the victims and gunmen were actors, and the blood was fake. However, the deputies, firefighters and doctors from across the region were real.

They were in the middle of a simulation on a Saturday afternoon in mid-January in a commercial lot on the north end of San Diego, conducted by Strategic Operations, a local company run by former Hollywood producers and military combat veterans.

First responders and law enforcement agents have for decades used simulations to train for mass casualty events such as shootings or natural disasters, especially after the Columbine school shooting in 1999. But in recent years, as mass shootings have become increasingly common in the United States, the simulations have become more and more realistic. Now they feature visceral sound effects, trained actors, pyrotechnics and even virtual reality. The trainings also have become more and more expensive for public agencies.

But hyper-realistic simulations are essential for learning how to respond to an active shooter, triage mass casualties and coordinate among departments in a chaotic environment, said Sgt. Colin Hebeler, who works in the Infrastructure Security Group within the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. The department has two facilities where deputies go through similar simulation training.

“If we can provide these trainings that are as close to the real-life event as possible, you will actually induce that same kind of stress and the reaction that you might have during a real-life incident,” he told Stateline.

Stop the killing, stop the dying

Training has evolved in Hebeler’s 16 years in the department, expanding well beyond both the classroom and limited simulations that involved plastic pieces that looked like guns and shouts of “Bang, bang.” Although expensive, simulated mass shootings are far more intense, realistic and frequent now, he said.

“If it does happen, we’re going to be prepared,” Hebeler added. “We don’t want this to be one of those catastrophic events that comes out on the news, and everyone says, ‘Well, the law enforcement messed up.’”

Law enforcement agencies continue to face public scrutiny over how they respond to mass shooting events — highlighted by last month’s scathing report from the U.S. Department of Justice on the response to the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 people dead, all but two of them elementary school children.

First responders are trained to focus on two things in a mass shooting event: Stop the killing and stop the dying. By waiting 77 minutes outside the fourth grade classrooms where the active shooter was before confronting and killing him, Uvalde law enforcement failed to follow protocols and that cost lives, the federal report found.

Uvalde showed “layer upon layer upon layer of failures,” said Jaclyn Schildkraut, executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at New York’s Rockefeller Institute of Government. Simulations highlight the sights, sounds and smells of an active shooter event in a controlled environment so the failures seen in Uvalde don’t occur, she said.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re the first officer or by yourself or there’s 20 of you, you go in and you stop the shooter, and then you start trying to help the people who’ve been injured,” she said.

“Simulations are really about acclimating you to what you might encounter on that given day, so that you are able to maintain that focus and subsequently your safety as best as possible.”

But she wanted to be clear about one point: This kind of training should never be used in schools among children. It is far too traumatic.

Simulation’s increased use

Seventeen miles east of downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, Wake Technical Community College is building a 60,000-square-foot facility with an 8-acre driving pad that is dedicated to reality-based simulation training for police, fire and emergency medical workers.

From the outside, observers wouldn’t realize the massive gray complex is full of buildings and streets, with spaces designed to mimic the commercial, jail, residential and school spaces first responders would experience in their communities. Trainees can drive into the facility, pull up to a specific location inside and respond to the simulated event — a school shooting, for example, or a fire inside a supermarket.

During mass shooting simulations, trainees will experience the disaster through all their senses: It could smell like smoke, there might be flashing lights and sirens, role players may act as screaming victims or use simulated munitions filled with paint. The $60 million facility, which is slated to open this spring, was funded by a bond that Wake County voters approved in 2018.

For officers, simulation training is much more effective than shooting at a line of paper targets, or simply going over shoot/don’t-shoot scenarios, said Jamie Wicker, provost of public safety education at Wake Tech. Training for mass shooting events has developed over many years with the help of veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, she added.

“It’s one thing to describe chaos. It’s completely different to experience chaos,” said Wicker, who has been in law enforcement for more than 20 years, in part as a trainer. “This is managed chaos.”

This approach has been backed up by researchers who have studied the effectiveness of simulation training for first responders.

When officers respond to a mass shooting, they’re running, maybe up a flight of stairs or while carrying people. They will see victims who are injured or dead. They will be worried about the shooter’s location. Meanwhile, parents may be rushing to the scene, along with additional first responders from agencies across the region who might not have interacted with one another before.

While an increased heart rate can produce positive reactions such as adrenaline and sharpened senses, it can quickly turn negative, leading to tunnel vision, auditory exclusion or impaired judgment, Dolly said.

“You want to, at some level, induce that in a training environment,” he said. “It conditions the officer to inoculate them from being overwhelmed by all that when the time comes.”

For the past decade, federal law enforcement has viewed the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center, known commonly as the ALERRT Center, as the national standard for active shooting simulation training. Hundreds of thousands of police officers have received training from the center, which was formed in the wake of Columbine and has been housed at Texas State University since 2002.

Funded by a line item in the Texas state budget and federal grants, ALERRT is mandated to train 80,000 Texas officers every two years at its facility in San Marcos — a city between Austin and San Antonio. But center experts also go to all 50 states to spread their training, going to schools during breaks and to businesses, at no cost to trainees or their agencies.

Sometimes they use local drama students to play victims, wearing makeup and moulage, simulating a wound. “They love it,” said Larry Balding, external resources director with the center.

For the training, ALERRT likes long hallways and T intersections — stress points for law enforcement responding to an active shooter. Beyond learning how to stop the shooter, trainees focus on getting victims to an operating table. Gunshot victims only have around 30 minutes before it’s too late, said Balding, who used to be in the fire service.

“Nobody will ever be 100% ready,” he said. “But if you can get a new officer, get him trained, trying to get the mindset right, that’s what we want to do.”

When asked where simulation training is heading in the field of first responders, Balding didn’t hesitate: virtual reality.

Training in the virtual world

The floor of the San Diego Convention Center was filled with lifelike mannequins — bleeding, blinking, moving and able to be poked and prodded and to respond to questions. Some were even pregnant, with a baby ready to squirm out when prompted.

Among the 140 health care presenters last month at a conference organized by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, a membership nonprofit that seeks to promote simulation training to reduce errors in medical care, were companies that want to take the industry in a whole new direction with virtual reality.

Whether first responders use Oculus headsets to learn how to interact with patients in an emergency room or use lifesaving tools at the scene of a shooting, localities are turning more to virtual reality training for first responders, said Dr. Barry Issenberg, president of the society.

“It’s the reduction of errors, safer care, safer way of training,” said Issenberg, who is also the director of the Gordon Center for Simulation and Innovation in Medical Education at the University of Miami. “What we’re doing is not just a cool idea, but ultimately going to make an impact for their constituents.”

The society worked with the Hollywood-style facility, which organized the simulation for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and other local first responders who participated the day before. Around 100 visiting academics and health care workers in town for a conference were among the onlookers.

While researchers have found in several studies that virtual reality can add some benefits to health care training, there is still some skepticism.

Dolly, at the National Policing Institute, sees “some promise” with virtual reality for training police officers. It can be a cost-effective alternative to in-person simulations and can help officers train in shoot/don’t-shoot scenarios.

However, he does see limitations with not being able to run around and experience viscerally the confusion of a mass shooting, which can be fully felt with an in-person simulation.

Back at the San Diego shooting simulation, screams still pierced the air.

Gunfire continued for another minute, as the seven deputies dashed from room to room in the complex of buildings. They killed the shooters, then carried some of the wounded down flights of stairs.

After the shots finally stopped, the screams of victims were nearly drowned out by the wail of ambulance sirens.

Firefighters and emergency medical technicians rushed bloodied victims in stretchers to nearby pop-up emergency and operating rooms, where Navy doctors tried to keep their footing on floors slippery with blood and worked to close victims’ wounds.

Wearing blue scrubs and shoe coverings, doctors turned victims on their side and searched for exit wounds. One demanded O negative blood.

An hour after the first shots rang out, the simulation ended. The first responders gathered in the ER in a semicircle. An instructor quieted the room, asked for the beeping heart monitors to be shut off and turned to the participants.

“So, what did we learn?”

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2024 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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  The kitchen, with its flip-out window, and dining area. (Photo by Preview First)

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  The living room is on the second floor. (Photo by Preview First)

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  The primary bedroom faces the walk-through closet on the left and the living room on the right. (Photo by Preview First)

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  The elevated Brazilian hardwood deck area at the front of the house. (Photo by Preview First)

A Dana Point house made with repurposed shipping containers is on the market for $1.78 million.

Located in the Lantern District, this 1,600-square-foot container home has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a soundproof automatic sliding barn door crafted from reclaimed lumber from an Idaho barn.

Set with a pedestrian door, the barn door conceals the one-car garage, which doubles as an artist’s studio.

Records show seller Max Auerswald purchased the property in June 2015 for $486,500. At the time, a 500-square-foot, single-story house stood on the lot. He and his wife, Talee, later demolished and replaced it with a house secured by 15-foot-deep caissons.

While the main level is stone and concrete, the couple installed two 40-foot containers and two 20-foot containers to create a second level.

The house, completed in 2019, has a modern industrial look and incorporates found and reclaimed elements, from abandoned doors to repurposed building materials.

Exposed beams, ductwork and pipes complement the reclaimed French limestone floors on the entry level. There, the kitchen features a flip-out window with an Italian travertine slab countertop for passing food and drinks indoors and out.

A steel bifold door extends the dining space out onto the elevated Brazilian hardwood deck. At the front of the house is a small patio concealed by a tall hedge.

The staircase has a metal horizontal railing and leads up to the living room on the second floor. At one end of the living room is the primary suite, which features a walk-through closet and a freestanding tub shower with a hanging oval curtain rod in the ensuite bathroom.

There are also two balconies, one at the front and the other at the back with a corrugated roof.

Smart technology, ample power and a new air-conditioning unit add to the perks of the home listed by Gaetano Lo Grande of Bullock Russell Real Estate Services.

The property at 33832 Robles Drive in Dana Point will open from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10.

The 8,000-square-foot house has five bedrooms, eight bathrooms and a spacious great room with glass walls that opens to the terraced backyard.

Records show Hall bought the property in May 2022 for $6.1 million, 19% more than its asking price, although it initially surfaced for sale at $8.5 million in December. It’s also available for a monthly lease of $29,500.

Built on an over-three-quarter-acre lot in 2018, the house has a dining room with a bar and a fireplace in the living room.

The gourmet kitchen has top-of-the-line appliances, a double oven, an espresso machine and a pantry with a utility sink. A second kitchen is on the lower level, along with a home theater

Pocket doors open from both sides of the primary suite on the upper level, which is accessible by a floating staircase or elevator. The suite features a fireplace, a seating area with a wet bar and a balcony that overlooks the pool, which boasts a see-through glass wall.

There’s a spa, lounge deck, expansive covered patio with a fire pit, a barbecue area, an outdoor powder room and a pool shower.

Features of the primary bathroom include dual water closets, custom lighting and a large walk-in closet with a dedicated vanity area.

A rooftop deck offers valley and mountain views.

Brooke A. Elliott and Joshua Morrow of Christie’s AKG share the listing.

Hall, 38, gained popularity after a brief stint on the ninth season of “American Idol” and amassed a large following on YouTube. In 2015, he starred in the MTV docuseries “Todrick.” He went on to choreograph and occasionally judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

He also played Lola in the Broadway show “Kinky Boots” and later appeared as Billy Flynn in “Chicago” on Broadway and the West End.

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  The floating fireplace. (Photo by Andrew Bramasco)

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  The built-in bar. (Photo by Andrew Bramasco)

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  The den. (Photo by Andrew Bramasco)

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  The kitchen and dining area. (Photo by Andrew Bramasco)

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  The primary bedroom. (Photo by Andrew Bramasco)

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  The walk-in closet. (Photo by Andrew Bramasco)

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  The casita doubles as an office. (Photo by Andrew Bramasco)

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  The pool. (Photo by Andrew Bramasco)

A renovated Rancho Mirage home where past and present come together has hit the market for $5.795 million.

The house, originally designed and built by architect Val Powelson in 1959, has been reimagined and restored by the design-build firm Studio Veren, formerly redüHome. Completed in February 2022, it has four bedrooms, five bathrooms and glass walls that connect the interior with resort-style outdoor spaces.

Studio Veren principal Steve Bouwman and Mike Silvaggi, the retired senior vice president of human resources at Louis Vuitton Americas, bought the property through a revocable trust in Silvaggi’s name in February 2021 for $1.425 million, records show.

The house received eight all-cash, above-ask offers within four hours of hitting the market 22 days earlier for $1.025 million, as reported by Palm Springs Life in November 2023.

After a gut renovation, the house is now primed for entertaining.

The main open-plan living space has wood paneling and a circular floating fireplace. Disappearing glass walls seamlessly transition outdoors atop travertine slab flooring.

At the opposite end of the living space, a built-in bar acts as a wall partition that separates the living room from the den.

Green distinguishes the gourmet kitchen, which features an oversized island with seating, a coffee bar and a walk-in pantry. There’s also a dining area.

Off the kitchen is an outdoor barbecue patio with a built-in Lynx grill and a seating area surrounded by citrus trees.

The primary suite has an outdoor shower garden, a walk-in closet with a built-in steamer and sanitizer and heated bathroom floors. An electric bidet adds to the perks.

Outdoor amenities include a pool and spa, a dining area, a water feature and two lounge areas with fire features.

The attached casita, which doubles as a home office, has walls papered in tropical leaves and a separate entrance.

A wired camera system, Control4 Home automation, surround sound, solar and a Tesla backup Powerwall round out the offerings.

Jeff Kohl of The Agency has the listing.

Powelson, who died in 1997 at 73, launched his career as a licensed general building contractor and designer. He became a licensed architect in 1986. He designed homes in the Los Angeles and Palm Springs areas, including the Maranz Residence in Rancho Mirage (1960) and the Indian Wells Country Club House (1959), which Julius Shulman photographed.

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  Beach goers out for an afternoon stroll make their way along the beach at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. Clouds began to roll onshore ahead a storm that will move through Southern California on Thursday, bringing rain and snow to the higher elevations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Water surrounds The Beach House after large swells earlier in the week in Seal Beach, California, on Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Jennifer Patten, right, front, and her staff from Ugly Dog Adventures walk 32 dogs at Irvine Regional Park in Orange, CA on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. Patten and her staff walk up to 60 dogs in two separate groups. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Michael Gould of Lake Forest, flies through the air while riding his scooter at the Laguna Hills Skate Park in Laguna Hills on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Kim Rhodes, co-owner of Blue Scoop Creamery in Brea, holds a waffle cone with honey almond brittle ice cream, on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2025. It is the second location of the company. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Carissa Hang and her 8-year-old daughter, Kiana, take a spill while sledding during Snowfest in Lake Forest on..Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. They were unhurt. The event featured food, games a snow pit, and a sledding hill. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Workers remove a section of the pedestrian beach trail below Buena Vista after a landslide damaged the walkway and stopped rail service between Orange and San Diego counties in San Clemente, CA, on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  A giant mirror, left, reflects the image of Makena Langer, 14, rides her Dutch warmblood horse named Pabatsa at the Rio Vista Equestrian Center equestrian center in San Juan Capistrano on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 as she trains for an upcoming dressage competition. The mirrors give riders visual feedback on their own position. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Aarti Chopra, of Irvine and a Chapman University alumni, takes a selfie following the raising the flag of India during a celebration of Indiaxe2x80x99s 75th Republic Day at the Argyros Global Citizens Plaza at Chapman University in Orange, on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Mulan’s Lunar New Year Procession during Lunar New Year at Disney California Adventure on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, in Anaheim, CA. ..(Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Workers investigate a landslide below Buena Vista that in damages the pedestrian beach trail and stopped rail service between Orange and San Diego counties in San Clemente, CA, on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Newport Harbor girls wrestler Duda Rodrigues in Newport Beach, CA, on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. Rodrigues is a nationally-ranked wrestler. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Cal State, Fullerton alumnus Alex Hupke blows a horn while supporting the California Faculty Association members strike at CSUF on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. The union represents 29,000 faculty members across the 23-campus CSU system. (Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Andy Magana poses for a picture for his daughter Sarah Magana the day before The NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. The NAMM Show (National Association of Music Merchants) is an annual event. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  After speaking with a nearby homeless individual, volunteers Katherine Ibarra, left, of the Garden Grove Regional Center and Yolie Negrete, right, a program supervisor at City Net, check their map on where to go next as they stand in a parking lot on First Street in downtown Santa Ana before dawn on Tuesday morning, Jan. 23, 2024. This week hundreds of volunteers with the Everyone Counts, Point In Time, homeless survey, will gather data throughout Orange County that will help address homeless issues. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Volunteers Jorge Solorzano, left, a Health Coach at CalOptima; Yolie Negrete, center, a program supervisor at City Net, and Katherine Ibarra, right, of the Garden Grove Regional Center, speak with homeless individuals in the entrance to a building on W. Civic Center Drive in downtown Santa Ana early Tuesday morning, Jan. 23, 2024. Volunteers for the Everyone Counts, Point In Time, a homeless survey, spread out throughout central Orange County on Tuesday, the first day of the survey, to gather data that will help address homeless issues. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Marques McCammon, president of Karma Automotive, an Irvine-based ultra-luxury vehicle company that engineers, designs and manufactures electric and range-extended electric vehicles, sits inside the $145,00 Revero on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Michael Santander plays along with students in the ukulele workshop at Sunkist Elementary School in Anaheim on..Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. NAMM Foundation and its members sponsored a musical Day of Service at the school.(Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Todd Leduc gets some air as he drives Megalodan during the Monster Jam competition at Angel Stadium on..Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Sushi Pham, left, Alani Huynh, Doris Nguyen, and Mackenzie Nguyen, right, during a preview of Flower Street on Historic Main in Garden Grove, CA, on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. Flower Street is a lunar New Year event with artisanal vendors, lion dances, musical performances, martial art performances, flower dress fashion show, country folk games and a children flower wagon contest. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  A visitor to the Crossroads of the West Gun Show check out a booth in Costa Mesa, CA, on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Kyle Paine, left, president of Community Development Partners, tours a former Motel 6 converted into housing for the homeless with California Governor Gavin Newsom, right, in Costa Mesa on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. It is part of the statexe2x80x99s Homekey project which transforms former office space, hotels, and other buildings into housing for those experiencing homelessness. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference about the statexe2x80x99s Homekey project which transforms former office space, hotels, and other buildings into housing for those experiencing homelessness, at a former Motel 6 converted to apartments for the homeless in Costa Mesa on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. Standing behind Newsom are from left: Kyle Paine, president of Community Development Partners; Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley; Costa Mesa Mayor John Stephens and Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Chef Brandon Avila and Ducks player Mason McTavish cook up dinner during the Dux in Tux fundraiser at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. The 23rd annual Dux in Tux brought almost 30 Southern California chefs and restaurants together with Anaheim Ducks players/coaches/team personnel serving as sous chefs to benefit the Anaheim Ducks Foundation. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  A man surfs in the first light of the day in Huntington Beach, CA on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Kendra, center, licks the face of Randy Simdorm of Anaheim, as his son, Jay Stilwell, left, holds the leash while they wait for the adoption paperwork at the OC Animal Care shelter in Tustin on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. The shelter began opening various kennels without an appointment for community members for three hours per day on Wednesday. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Las Vegas Aces WNBA players, from left, Jackie Young, Kierstan Bell, and Kiah Stokes react when speaker Nadia Mojica, a former 1998 Marina High teammate of Natalie Nakase, reveals that Nakase was a huge fan of the Spice Girls during a jersey retirement ceremony for former Marina basketball player Natalie Nakase in the gym at Marina High School Huntington Beach on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Deanna Peterson, left, holds, Bobby, as her mother, Ginger Peterson, both of Mission Viejo, looks on at right, as they visit the OC Animal Care shelter in Tustin Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. The Petersonxe2x80x99s adopted Booby after looking at a few other kittens. The shelter began opening various kennels without an appointment for community members for three hours per day on Wednesday. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Molly MacMillan (18) of Santa Margarita kicks the ball from behind Jenna Rivera (7) of Mater Dei during a Trinity League girls soccer game at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Orange County Supervisor Donald P. Wagner, left, gives an introduction for Orange County Hall of Fame inductee and Olympic gold medal swimmer Amanda Beard, center, as she stands with Supervisor Katrina Foley, right, during her induction into the Orange County Hall of Fame at the County Administration building in Santa Ana on Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Orange County Supervisor Donald P. Wagner, left, stands by as Gwen Stefani holds her plaque during during her induction into the Orange County Hall of Fame at the County Administration building in Santa Ana on Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Kimberly Williams Blair, widow of OC Deputy Public Defender Elliot Blair, in front of the Old Courthouse in Santa Ana on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 wears her husbands wedding ring on an Elliott and Kim name necklace. Jan. 14 will mark one-year since the death of Elliot Blair. Elliot and Kimberly were at a resort in Rosarito, Mexico last year to celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary when Blair died under suspicious circumstances. Mexican authorities say he accidentally fell three stories from a ledge at his hotel. His family believes he was killed. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Derek Engram (2) of Villa Park flys over the Canyon defense as he attempts to control a loose ball during a Crestview League boys basketball game at Canyon High School in Anaheim on Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Orange County Supervisors Donald P. Wagner, left, and Katrina Foley, right, listen as Gwen Stefani speaks during her induction into the Orange County Hall of Fame at the County Administration building in Santa Ana on Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  With a calf following close by, orcas swim near the various whale watching boats following the orcas as they swim off the coast of Huntington Beach at sunset on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. For nearly a month, orcas have been swimming off Southern California, feasting on dolphins and attracting people to see these majestic mammals in nature. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  An orca swims close to the Newport Coastal Adventure boat as other whale watching boats follow off the coast of Newport Beach on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. For nearly a month, orcas have been swimming off Southern California, feasting on dolphins and attracting people to see these majestic mammals in nature. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Oil platforms loom in the distance as a couple take photos just after the sun dips below the horizon in Huntington Beach on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  People walk along the Huntington Beach Pier at sunset in Huntington Beach on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  As the sunsets behind Catalina Island, an orca comes to the surface after swimming off the coast of Orange County on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. For nearly a month, orcas have been swimming off Southern California, feasting on dolphins and attracting people to see these majestic mammals in nature. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  A kid chases gulls near the pier in Seal Beach, CA on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  A surfer watches as the sun sets behind the Huntington Beach Pier in Huntington Beach on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  A stand up paddle boarder takes a fall near the pier in Seal Beach, CA on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  A motorcyclist wearing rabbit ears over a helmet rides along Chapman Avenue around the Plaza in Orange on Friday afternoon, Jan. 5, 2024. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Manny Gama, dressed as Corey Taylor from Slipknot, has a message for his fellow attendees during Anime Los Angeles at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, CA, on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Workers install the Millard Sheets mosaic, xe2x80x9cPleasures Along the Beachxe2x80x9d, at the Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University in Orange, CA, on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. The 20-ton mosaic, made of Murano glass, depicts a California beach scene and was originally installed on a Home Savings in Santa Monica over 50 years ago. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Jan Abestilla is dressed as Josuka from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure during Anime Los Angeles at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, CA, on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  A jogger runs on the Jeffery Open Space Trail in Irvine on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024. A rain storm system expected move into Southern California on Wednesday bringing scattered showers and some snow across the region. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Turning your phone over so the lens is on the bottom and getting close to the ground will make your subject stand out. It helps if you can find a puddle for reflection. Shot with an iPhone in Irvine, CA, on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Tricia Banks and her dog Jasmin walk in the rain on the Balboa Pier in Newport Beach, CA on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. Storms moved through the area and were expected to tapper off by afternoon. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  A store closing sign is displayed at a business at The Village at Orange in Orange, CA on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Dozens of adventurous swimmers brave the cold to welcome in the new year with a jump into the ocean during the 24th annual Surf City Splash on Monday, Jan. 1, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Louise Vandertuuk makes a splash during Surf Cityxe2x80x99s annual event of plunging into the ocean to celebrate the new year on Monday, Jan. 1, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Sunburst Youth Academy cadets perform exhibition drills for their loved ones during Family Day in Los Alamitos on..Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023. It was the first reunion with extended family since the students entered the residential program in July. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Justin Harman, with the California State Guard, shouts orders at Sunburst Youth Academy candidates after startling them awake at 5 a.m. on their first full day at the academy. Known as “Shark Attack,” this begins the two-week acclamation phase of the five-and-a-half-month high school credit-recovery program. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Members of the Sunburst Youth Academy Drill and Color Guard teams practice into the night on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. Considered underdogs, the drill team took first place in a recent JROTC unarmed regulation drill event while competing against 15 area high schools. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Paige Treska, 14 riding her German sport pony named Molly at the Rio Vista Equestrian Center equestrian center in San Juan Capistrano on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 as she trains for an upcoming dressage competition. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Paige Treska, 14 rides her German sport pony named Molly at the Rio Vista Equestrian Center equestrian center in San Juan Capistrano on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024 as she trains for an upcoming dressage competition. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  NASA’s retired Space Shuttle Endeavour stands in launch position attached with an external tank and solid rocket boosters at the site of the future Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Los Angeles, CA, on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. The orbiter was lifted in place to its permanent position overnight. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  A woman takes a photo with Bing Bong, from the movie Inside Out, during a press tour at the Pixar Place Hotel in Anaheim, CA on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Travis Torrianni, 8, of Aliso Viejo, gets some air while riding his skateboard at the Laguna Hills Skate Park in Laguna Hills on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  Brian Worley, left, and Mark Hilbert, right, stand in front of the 1970 glass-tile mosaic by artist Millard Sheets, titled, Pleasures Along the Beach, after it was unveiled on the facade of the Hilbert Museum of California Art in Orange on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. Worley worked on the mosaic as an intern in 1969 and restored the mosaic after it was taken down from the Home Savings and Loan in Santa Monica. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

We asked our photographers to pick their favorite moments from January 2024, and here are some they selected.

The month started with pounding surf hitting local beaches and ended with hillsides slipping towards the ocean. In between, there were orcas, skateboarders and new Orange County Hall of Fame indictees.

The 2023 Inaugural Class of 10 honorees into the Orange County Hall of Fame gathered in the county seat as the Supervisors honored; Amanda Beard, Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, Henry Segerstrom, Greg Louganis, Walt Disney, Gwen Stefani, and General William Lyon. The Hall of Fame plaques will be installed in the lobby of the county administration offices for the community’s viewing.

In Huntington Beach, with a calf following close by, orcas swam near whale-watching boats following them as they swam off the coast of Huntington Beach at sunset. For nearly a month, orcas have been swimming off Southern California, attracting people to see the majestic mammals in nature.

In Anaheim, hockey players donned their tuxes during the Dux in Tux fundraiser at the Honda Center. The 23rd annual Dux in Tux brought almost 30 Southern California chefs and restaurants together with Anaheim Ducks players/coaches/team personnel serving as sous chefs to benefit the Anaheim Ducks Foundation.

Just up the street, giant trucks took to the dirt as Todd Leduc got some air driving Megalodon at the Monster Jam competition at Angel Stadium.

Over at Chapman University, Brian Worley unveiled the 1970 glass-tile mosaic by artist Millard Sheets, titled, Pleasures Along the Beach, after it was unveiled on the façade of the Hilbert Museum of California Art in Orange. Worley worked on the mosaic as an intern in 1969 and restored the mosaic after it was taken down from the Home Savings and Loan in Santa Monica.

Another landslide in San Clemente took out the pedestrian beach trail and stopped rail service between Orange and San Diego counties. Moving earth has been a continual problem in South Orange County.

The month ended with a jury finding Marcus Eriz guilty of committing second degree murder when he shot at a car in 2021, killing six-year-old Aiden Leos. The defense countered that firing the gun in traffic was a rash decision and he had no intent to kill.

Check out the photos and follow The Orange County Register on Facebook and Instagram. Here are our staff photographers’ individual pages: Paul Bersebach, Jeff Gritchen, Leonard Ortiz, Mark Rightmire, and Mindy Schauer.

Stay safe and stay healthy!

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  The 5.33-acre ranch, lower left, is situated along a private road. (Photo by TeigenMedia.com)

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  The house is sold as is. (Photo by TeigenMedia.com)

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  The property is just a short walk to the Coachella and Stagecoach music festival staging grounds. (Photo by TeigenMedia.com)

A horse ranch near the renowned Coachella and Stagecoach music festival staging grounds has landed on the market for $3.25 million.

Known as Shady Dune Ranch, this 5.33-acre property along a private road has a 3,100-square-foot house with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a one-car garage.

The house, built atop a dune in 1995, offers 360-degree views of the mountains and beyond. It is being sold as-is.

Records show the ranch last traded hands in November 2001 for $450,000.

The property is now being marketed to developers, resort VIPS and horse enthusiasts.

Scott Braun of Scott Braun Realty is the listing agent.

Shady Dune Ranch is a short walk to the Empire Polo Club, home of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, returning April 12-14 and April 19-21, and the Stagecoach Country Music Festival, taking place April 26-28.

ANGOLA, La. — A hidden path to America’s dinner tables begins here, at an unlikely source – a former Southern slave plantation that is now the country’s largest maximum-security prison.

Unmarked trucks packed with prison-raised cattle roll out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where men are sentenced to hard labor and forced to work, for pennies an hour or sometimes nothing at all. After rumbling down a country road to an auction house, the cows are bought by a local rancher and then followed by The Associated Press another 600 miles to a Texas slaughterhouse that feeds into the supply chains of giants like McDonald’s, Walmart and Cargill.

Intricate, invisible webs, just like this one, link some of the world’s largest food companies and most popular brands to jobs performed by U.S. prisoners nationwide, according to a sweeping two-year AP investigation into prison labor that tied hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of agricultural products to goods sold on the open market.

They are among America’s most vulnerable laborers. If they refuse to work, some can jeopardize their chances of parole or face punishment like being sent to solitary confinement. They also are often excluded from protections guaranteed to almost all other full-time workers, even when they are seriously injured or killed on the job.

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The goods these prisoners produce wind up in the supply chains of a dizzying array of products found in most American kitchens, from Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal flour, Coca-Cola and Riceland rice. They are on the shelves of virtually every supermarket in the country, including Kroger, Target, Aldi and Whole Foods. And some goods are exported, including to countries that have had products blocked from entering the U.S. for using forced or prison labor.

Many of the companies buying directly from prisons are violating their own policies against the use of such labor. But it’s completely legal, dating back largely to the need for labor to help rebuild the South’s shattered economy after the Civil War. Enshrined in the Constitution by the 13th Amendment, slavery and involuntary servitude are banned – except as punishment for a crime.

That clause is currently being challenged on the federal level, and efforts to remove similar language from state constitutions are expected to reach the ballot in about a dozen states this year.

RELATED: Employees speak out against proposed Kroger/Albertsons merger

Some prisoners work on the same plantation soil where slaves harvested cotton, tobacco and sugarcane more than 150 years ago, with some present-day images looking eerily similar to the past. In Louisiana, which has one of the country’s highest incarceration rates, men working on the “farm line” still stoop over crops stretching far into the distance.

Willie Ingram picked everything from cotton to okra during his 51 years in the state penitentiary, better known as Angola.

During his time in the fields, he was overseen by armed guards on horseback and recalled seeing men, working with little or no water, passing out in triple-digit heat. Some days, he said, workers would throw their tools in the air to protest, despite knowing the potential consequences.

“They’d come, maybe four in the truck, shields over their face, billy clubs, and they’d beat you right there in the field. They beat you, handcuff you and beat you again,” said Ingram, who received a life sentence after pleading guilty to a crime he said he didn’t commit. He was told he would serve 10 ½ years and avoid a possible death penalty, but it wasn’t until 2021 that a sympathetic judge finally released him. He was 73.

The number of people behind bars in the United States started to soar in the 1970s just as Ingram entered the system, disproportionately hitting people of color. Now, with about 2 million people locked up, U.S. prison labor from all sectors has morphed into a multibillion-dollar empire, extending far beyond the classic images of prisoners stamping license plates, working on road crews or battling wildfires.

Though almost every state has some kind of farming program, agriculture represents only a small fraction of the overall prison workforce. Still, an analysis of data amassed by the AP from correctional facilities nationwide traced nearly $200 million worth of sales of farmed goods and livestock to businesses over the past six years – a conservative figure that does not include tens of millions more in sales to state and government entities. Much of the data provided was incomplete, though it was clear that the biggest revenues came from sprawling operations in the South and leasing out prisoners to companies.

Corrections officials and other proponents note that not all work is forced and that prison jobs save taxpayers money. For example, in some cases, the food produced is served in prison kitchens or donated to those in need outside. They also say workers are learning skills that can be used when they’re released and given a sense of purpose, which could help ward off repeat offenses. In some places, it allows prisoners to also shave time off their sentences. And the jobs provide a way to repay a debt to society, they say.

While most critics don’t believe all jobs should be eliminated, they say incarcerated people should be paid fairly, treated humanely and that all work should be voluntary. Some note that even when people get specialized training, like firefighting, their criminal records can make it almost impossible to get hired on the outside.

“They are largely uncompensated, they are being forced to work, and it’s unsafe. They also aren’t learning skills that will help them when they are released,” said law professor Andrea Armstrong, an expert on prison labor at Loyola University New Orleans. “It raises the question of why we are still forcing people to work in the fields.”

In addition to tapping a cheap, reliable workforce, companies sometimes get tax credits and other financial incentives. Incarcerated workers also typically aren’t covered by the most basic protections, including workers’ compensation and federal safety standards. In many cases, they cannot file official complaints about poor working conditions.

These prisoners often work in industries with severe labor shortages, doing some of the country’s dirtiest and most dangerous jobs.

The AP sifted through thousands of pages of documents and spoke to more than 80 current or formerly incarcerated people, including men and women convicted of crimes that ranged from murder to shoplifting, writing bad checks, theft or other illegal acts linked to drug use. Some were given long sentences for nonviolent offenses because they had previous convictions, while others were released after proving their innocence.

Reporters found people who were hurt or maimed on the job, and also interviewed women who were sexually harassed or abused, sometimes by their civilian supervisors or the correctional officers overseeing them. While it’s often nearly impossible for those involved in workplace accidents to sue, the AP examined dozens of cases that managed to make their way into the court system. Reporters also spoke to family members of prisoners who were killed.

One of those was Frank Dwayne Ellington, who was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after stealing a man’s wallet at gunpoint – a result of Alabama’s habitual offenders act. In 2017, Ellington, 33, was cleaning a machine near the chicken “kill line” in Ashland at Koch Foods – one of the country’s biggest poultry-processing companies – when its whirling teeth caught his arm and sucked him inside, crushing his skull. He died instantly.

During a yearslong legal battle, Koch Foods at first argued Ellington wasn’t technically an employee, and later said his family should be barred from filing for wrongful death because the company had paid his funeral expenses. The case eventually was settled under undisclosed terms. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company $19,500, saying workers had not been given proper training and that its machines had inadequate safety guards.

“It’s somebody’s child, it’s somebody’s dad, it’s somebody’s uncle, it’s somebody’s family,” said Ellington’s mother, Alishia Powell-Clark. “Yes, they did wrong, but they are paying for it.”

The AP found that U.S. prison labor is in the supply chains of goods being shipped all over the world via multinational companies, including to countries that have been slapped with import bans by Washington in recent years. For instance, the U.S. has blocked shipments of cotton coming from China, a top manufacturer of popular clothing brands, because it was produced by forced or prison labor. But crops harvested by U.S. prisoners have entered the supply chains of companies that export to China.

While prison labor seeps into the supply chains of some companies through third-party suppliers without them knowing, others buy direct. Mammoth commodity traders that are essential to feeding the globe like Cargill, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus, Archer Daniels Midland and Consolidated Grain and Barge – which together post annual revenues of more than $400 billion – have in recent years scooped up millions of dollars’ worth of soy, corn and wheat straight from prisons, which compete with local farmers.

The AP reached out for comment to the companies it identified as having connections to prison labor, but most did not respond.

Cargill acknowledged buying goods from prison farms in Tennessee, Arkansas and Ohio, saying they constituted only a small fraction of the company’s overall volume. It added that “we are now in the process of determining the appropriate remedial action.”

McDonald’s said it would investigate links to any such labor, while Archer Daniels Midland and General Mills, which produces Gold Medal flour, pointed to their policies in place restricting suppliers from using forced labor. Whole Foods responded flatly: “Whole Foods Market does not allow the use of prison labor in products sold at our stores.”

Bunge said it sold all facilities that were sourcing from correction departments in 2021, so they are “no longer part of Bunge’s footprint.”

Dairy Farmers of America, a cooperative that bills itself as the top supplier of raw milk worldwide, said that while it has been buying from correctional facilities, it now only has one “member dairy” at a prison, with most of that milk used inside.

To understand the business of prison labor and the complex movement of agricultural goods, the AP collected information from all 50 states, through public records requests and inquiries to corrections departments. Reporters also crisscrossed the country, following trucks transporting crops and livestock linked to prison work, and tailed transport vans from prisons and work-release sites heading to places such as poultry plants, egg farms and fast-food restaurants. A lack of transparency and, at times, baffling losses exposed in audits, added to the challenges of fully tracking the money.

Big-ticket items like row crops and livestock are sold on the open market, with profits fed back into agriculture programs. For instance, about a dozen state prison farms, including operations in Texas, Virginia, Kentucky and Montana, have sold more than $60 million worth of cattle since 2018.

As with other sales, the custody of cows can take a serpentine route. Because they often are sold online at auction houses or to stockyards, it can be almost impossible to determine where the beef eventually ends up.

Sometimes there’s only one way to know for sure.

In Louisiana, an AP reporter watched as three long trailers loaded with more than 80 cattle left the state penitentiary. The cows raised by prisoners traveled for about an hour before being unloaded for sale at Dominique’s Livestock Market in Baton Rouge.

As they were shoved through a gate into a viewing pen, the auctioneer jokingly warned buyers “Watch out!” The cows, he said, had just broken out of prison.

Within minutes, the Angola lot was snapped up by a local livestock dealer, who then sold the cattle to a Texas beef processor that also buys cows directly from prisons in that state. Meat from the slaughterhouse winds up in the supply chains of some of the country’s biggest fast-food chains, supermarkets and meat exporters, including Burger King, Sam’s Club and Tyson Foods.

“It’s a real slap in the face, to hear where all those cattle are going,” said Jermaine Hudson, who served 22 years at Angola on a robbery conviction before he was exonerated.

He said it’s especially galling because the food served in prison tasted like slop.

“Those were some of the most disrespectful meals,” Hudson said, “that I ever, in my life, had to endure.”

Angola is imposing in its sheer scale. The so-called “Alcatraz of the South” is tucked far away, surrounded by alligator-infested swamps in a bend of the Mississippi River. It spans 18,000 acres – an area bigger than the island of Manhattan – and has its own ZIP code.

The former 19th-century antebellum plantation once was owned by one of the largest slave traders in the U.S. Today, it houses some 3,800 men behind its razor-wire walls, about 65 percent of them Black. Within days of arrival, they typically head to the fields, sometimes using hoes and shovels or picking crops by hand. They initially work for free, but then can earn between 2 cents and 40 cents an hour.

Calvin Thomas, who spent more than 17 years at Angola, said anyone who refused to work, didn’t produce enough or just stepped outside the long straight rows knew there would be consequences.

“If he shoots the gun in the air because you done passed that line, that means you’re going to get locked up and you’re going to have to pay for that bullet that he shot,” said Thomas, adding that some days were so blistering hot the guards’ horses would collapse.

“You can’t call it anything else,” he said. “It’s just slavery.”

Louisiana corrections spokesman Ken Pastorick called that description “absurd.” He said the phrase “sentenced with hard labor” is a legal term referring to a prisoner with a felony conviction.

Pastorick said the department has transformed Angola from “the bloodiest prison in America” over the past several decades with “large-scale criminal justice reforms and reinvestment into the creation of rehabilitation, vocational and educational programs designed to help individuals better themselves and successfully return to communities.” He noted that pay rates are set by state statute.

Current and former prisoners in both Louisiana and Alabama have filed class-action lawsuits in the past four months saying they have been forced to provide cheap – or free – labor to those states and outside companies, a practice they also described as slavery.

Prisoners have been made to work since before emancipation, when slaves were at times imprisoned and then leased out by local authorities.

But after the Civil War, the 13th Amendment’s exception clause that allows for prison labor provided legal cover to round up thousands of mostly young Black men. Many were jailed for petty offenses like loitering and vagrancy. They then were leased out by states to plantations like Angola and some of the country’s biggest companies, including coal mines and railroads. They were routinely whipped for not meeting quotas while doing brutal and often deadly work.

The convict-leasing period, which officially ended in 1928, helped chart the path to America’s modern-day prison-industrial complex.

Incarceration was used not just for punishment or rehabilitation but for profit. A law passed a few years later made it illegal to knowingly transport or sell goods made by incarcerated workers across state lines, though an exception was made for agricultural products. Today, after years of efforts by lawmakers and businesses, corporations are setting up joint ventures with corrections agencies, enabling them to sell almost anything nationwide.

Civilian workers are guaranteed basic rights and protections by OSHA and laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act, but prisoners, who are often not legally considered employees, are denied many of those entitlements and cannot protest or form unions.

“They may be doing the exact same work as people who are not incarcerated, but they don’t have the training, they don’t have the experience, they don’t have the protective equipment,” said Jennifer Turner, lead author of a 2022 American Civil Liberties Union report on prison labor.

Almost all of the country’s state and federal adult prisons have some sort of work program, employing around 800,000 people, the report said. It noted the vast majority of those jobs are connected to tasks like maintaining prisons, laundry or kitchen work, which typically pay a few cents an hour if anything at all. And the few who land the highest-paying state industry jobs may earn only a dollar an hour.

Altogether, labor tied specifically to goods and services produced through state prison industries brought in more than $2 billion in 2021, the ACLU report said. That includes everything from making mattresses to solar panels, but does not account for work-release and other programs run through local jails, detention and immigration centers and even drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities.

Some incarcerated workers with just a few months or years left on their sentences have been employed everywhere from popular restaurant chains like Burger King to major retail stores and meat-processing plants. Unlike work crews picking up litter in orange jumpsuits, they go largely unnoticed, often wearing the same uniforms as their civilian counterparts.

Outside jobs can be coveted because they typically pay more and some states deposit a small percentage earned into a savings account for prisoners’ eventual release. Though many companies pay minimum wage, some states garnish more than half their salaries for items such as room and board and court fees.

It’s a different story for those on prison farms. The biggest operations remain in the South and crops are still harvested on a number of former slave plantations, including in Arkansas, Texas and at Mississippi’s notorious Parchman Farm. Those states, along with Florida, Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia, pay nothing for most types of work.

Most big farms, including Angola, have largely mechanized many of their operations, using commercial-size tractors, trucks and combines for corn, soy, rice and other row crops. But prisoners in some places continue to do other work by hand, including clearing brush with swing blades.

“I was in a field with a hoe in my hand with maybe like a hundred other women. We were standing in a line very closely together, and we had to raise our hoes up at the exact same time and count ‘One, two, three, chop!’” said Faye Jacobs, who worked on prison farms in Arkansas.

Jacobs, who was released in 2018 after more than 26 years, said the only pay she received was two rolls of toilet paper a week, toothpaste and a few menstrual pads each month.

She recounted being made to carry rocks from one end of a field to the other and back again for hours, and said she also endured taunting from guards saying “Come on, hos, it’s hoe squad!” She said she later was sent back to the fields at another prison after women there complained of sexual harassment by staff inside the facility.

“We were like ‘Is this a punishment?’” she said. “‘We’re telling y’all that we’re being sexually harassed, and you come back and the first thing you want to do is just put us all on hoe squad.’”

David Farabough, who oversees the state’s 20,000 acres of prison farms, said Arkansas’ operations can help build character.

“A lot of these guys come from homes where they’ve never understood work and they’ve never understood the feeling at the end of the day for a job well-done,” he said. “We’re giving them purpose. … And then at the end of the day, they get the return by having better food in the kitchens.”

In addition to giant farms, at least 650 correctional facilities nationwide have prisoners doing jobs like landscaping, tending greenhouses and gardens, raising livestock, beekeeping and even fish farming, said Joshua Sbicca, director of the Prison Agriculture Lab at Colorado State University. He noted that corrections officials exert power by deciding who deserves trade-building jobs like welding, for example, and who works in the fields.

In several states, along with raising chickens, cows and hogs, corrections departments have their own processing plants, dairies and canneries. But many states also hire out prisoners to do that same work at big private companies.

The AP met women in Mississippi locked up at restitution centers, the equivalent of debtors’ prisons, to pay off court-mandated expenses. They worked at Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and other fast-food chains and also have been hired out to individuals for work like lawn mowing or home repairs.

“There is nothing innovative or interesting about this system of forced labor as punishment for what in so many instances is an issue of poverty or substance abuse,” said Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi.

In Alabama, where prisoners are leased out by companies, AP reporters followed inmate transport vans to poultry plants run by Tyson Foods, which owns brands such as Hillshire Farms, Jimmy Dean and Sara Lee, along with a company that supplies beef, chicken and fish to McDonald’s. The vans also stopped at a chicken processor that’s part of a joint-venture with Cargill, which is America’s largest private company. It brought in a record $177 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2023 and supplies conglomerates like PepsiCo.

Though Tyson did not respond to questions about direct links to prison farms, it said that its work-release programs are voluntary and that incarcerated workers receive the same pay as their civilian colleagues.

Some people arrested in Alabama are put to work even before they’ve been convicted. An unusual work-release program accepts pre-trial defendants, allowing them to avoid jail while earning bond money. But with multiple fees deducted from their salaries, that can take time.

The AP went out on a work detail with a Florida chain gang wearing black-and-white striped uniforms and ankle shackles, created after Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey took office in 2012. He said the unpaid work is voluntary and so popular that it has a waitlist.

“It’s a win-win,” he said. “The inmate that’s doing that is learning a skill set. … They are making time go by at a faster pace. The other side of the win-win is, it’s generally saving the taxpayers money.”

Ivey noted it’s one of the only remaining places in the country where a chain gang still operates.

“I don’t feel like they should get paid,” he said. “They’re paying back their debt to society for violating the law.”

Elsewhere, several former prisoners spoke positively about their work experiences, even if they sometimes felt exploited.

“I didn’t really think about it until I got out, and I was like, ‘Wow, you know, I actually took something from there and applied it out here,’” said William “Buck” Saunders, adding he got certified to operate a forklift at his job stacking animal feed at Cargill while incarcerated in Arizona.

Companies that hire prisoners get a reliable, plentiful workforce even during unprecedented labor shortages stemming from immigration crackdowns and, more recently, the coronavirus pandemic.

In March 2020, though all other outside company jobs were halted, the Arizona corrections department announced about 140 women were being abruptly moved from their prison to a metal hangar-like warehouse on property owned by Hickman’s Family Farms, which pitches itself as the Southwest’s largest egg producer.

Hickman’s has employed prisoners for nearly 30 years and supplies many grocery stores, including Costco and Kroger, marketing brands such as Eggland’s Best and Land O’ Lakes. It is the state corrections department’s largest labor contractor, bringing in nearly $35 million in revenue over the past six fiscal years.

“The only reason they had us out there was because they didn’t want to lose that contract because the prison makes so much money off of it,” said Brooke Counts, who lived at Hickman’s desert site, which operated for 14 months. She was serving a drug-related sentence and said she feared losing privileges or being transferred to a more secure prison yard if she refused to work.

Counts said she knew prisoners who were seriously hurt, including one woman who was impaled in the groin and required a helicopter flight to the hospital and another who lost part of a finger.

Hickman’s, which has faced a number of lawsuits stemming from inmate injuries, did not respond to emailed questions or phone messages seeking a response. Corrections department officials would not comment on why the women were moved off-site, saying it happened during a previous administration. But a statement at the time said the move was made to “ensure a stable food supply while also protecting public health and the health of those in our custody.”

Some women employed by Hickman’s earned less than $3 an hour after deductions, including 30 percent taken by the state for room and board, even though they were living in the makeshift dormitory.

“While we were out there, we were still paying the prison rent,” Counts said. “What for?”

The business of prison labor is so vast and convoluted that tracing the money can be challenging. Some agricultural programs regularly go into the red, raising questions in state audits and prompting investigations into potential corruption, mismanagement or general inefficiency.

Nearly half the agricultural goods produced in Texas between 2014 and 2018 lost money, for example, and a similar report in Louisiana uncovered losses of around $3.8 million between fiscal years 2016 and 2018. A separate federal investigation into graft at the for-profit arm of Louisiana’s correctional department led to the jailing of two employees.

Correctional officials say steep farming expenditures and unpredictable variables like weather can eat into profits. And while some goods may do poorly, they note, others do well.

Prisons at times have generated revenue by tapping into niche markets or to their states’ signature foods.

During the six-year period the AP examined, surplus raw milk from a Wisconsin prison dairy went to BelGioioso Cheese, which makes Polly-O string cheese and other products that land in grocery stores nationwide like Whole Foods. A California prison provided almonds to Minturn Nut Company, a major producer and exporter. And until 2022, Colorado was raising water buffalo for milk that was sold to giant mozzarella cheesemaker Leprino Foods, which supplies major pizza companies like Domino’s, Pizza Hut and Papa John’s.

But for many states, it’s the work-release programs that have become the biggest cash generators, largely because of the low overhead. In Alabama, for instance, the state brought in more than $32 million in the past five fiscal years after garnishing 40 percent of prisoners’ wages.

In some states, work-release programs are run on the local level, with sheriffs frequently responsible for handling the books and awarding contracts. Even though the programs are widely praised – by the state, employers and often prisoners themselves – reports of abuse exist.

In Louisiana, where more than 1,200 companies hire prisoners through work release, sheriffs get anywhere from about $10 to $20 a day for each state prisoner they house in local jails to help ease overcrowding. And they can deduct more than half of the wages earned by those contracted out to companies – a huge revenue stream for small counties.

Jack Strain, a former longtime sheriff in the state’s St. Tammany Parish, pleaded guilty in 2021 in a scheme involving the privatization of a work-release program in which nearly $1.4 million was taken in and steered to Strain, close associates and family members. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which came on top of four consecutive life sentences for a broader sex scandal linked to that same program.

Incarcerated people also have been contracted to companies that partner with prisons. In Idaho, they’ve sorted and packed the state’s famous potatoes, which are exported and sold to companies nationwide. In Kansas, they’ve been employed at Russell Stover chocolates and Cal-Maine Foods, the country’s largest egg producer. Though the company has since stopped using them, in recent years they were hired in Arizona by Taylor Farms, which sells salad kits in many major grocery stores nationwide and supplies popular fast-food chains and restaurants like Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Some states would not provide the names of companies taking part in transitional prison work programs, citing security concerns. So AP reporters confirmed some prisoners’ private employers with officials running operations on the ground and also followed inmate transport vehicles as they zigzagged through cities and drove down country roads. The vans stopped everywhere from giant meat-processing plants to a chicken and daiquiri restaurant.

One pulled into the manicured grounds of a former slave plantation that has been transformed into a popular tourist site and hotel in St. Francisville, Louisiana, where visitors pose for wedding photos under old live oaks draped with Spanish moss.

As a reporter watched, a West Feliciana Parish van emblazoned with “Sheriff Transitional Work Program” pulled up. Two Black men hopped out and quickly walked through the restaurant’s back door. One said he was there to wash dishes before his boss called him back inside.

The Myrtles, as the antebellum home is known, sits just 20 miles away from where men toil in the fields of Angola.

“Slavery has not been abolished,” said Curtis Davis, who spent more than 25 years at the penitentiary and is now fighting to change state laws that allow for forced labor in prisons.

“It is still operating in present tense,” he said. “Nothing has changed.”

AP videographers Robert Bumsted and Cody Jackson contributed to this report.

The Associated Press receives support from the Public Welfare Foundation for reporting focused on criminal justice. This story also was supported by Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights in conjunction with Arnold Ventures. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

EUREKA — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pledging to fast-track more than half a dozen projects by the end of his term to remove or bypass dams that have blocked salmon from returning to the state’s chilly mountain streams and acting as the keystone of a complex ecosystem that sustains both economies and spiritual beliefs for tribes.

Newsom — now in his second term and seen as a potential Democratic presidential candidate beyond 2024 — has worked hard to stake a claim as the nation’s most environmentally-conscious governor. But his record has been dogged by criticism from environmental groups who say his water policies benefit big agriculture at the expense of salmon and other species of fish in danger of becoming extinct.

Millions of salmon once filled California’s rivers and streams each year, bringing with them key nutrients from the ocean that gave the state an abundance of natural resources that were so important to indigenous peoples that they formed the foundation of creation stories central to tribes’ way of life.

But last year, there were so few salmon in the state’s rivers that the officials closed the commercial fishing season.

Frustrated by the criticism leveled against him and his administration, Newsom on Tuesday released a plan outlining his strategy to protect salmon — a plan that includes a heavy helping of projects that would remove or bypass aging dams that prevent from returning to the streams of their birth to lay eggs.

“These are tangible. And so much of the work we do is, you know, you can’t see it, you can’t feel it,” Newsom told The Associated Press in an interview near the banks of the Elk River in Eureka near a recently completed project that returned some agricultural land to a flood plain habitat for salmon. “But when you see a dam being removed and you come back a few months later — a year or two, five years later — and you see real progress.”

Newsom’s salmon strategy includes a promise to complete an agreement by the end of the year to remove the Scott Dam and replace the Cape Horn Dam along the Eel River that have blocked salmon access to 288 miles (463 kilometers) of habitat. Once completed, the Eel would be the longest free-flowing river in the state, flowing north through the Coast Ranges before emptying into the Pacific Ocean near the town of Fortuna.

By next summer, Newsom said he would complete plans for the removal of the nearly 100-year-old Rindge Dam along Malibu Creek in western Los Angeles County that would give steelhead another 15 miles (24 kilometers) of spawning and rearing habitat. And by 2026 — the last year of Newsom’s term — he promised to complete the infrastructure necessary to remove the Matilija Dam in Ventura County along a tributary of the Ventura River.

These projects have already been announced and are in the early stages of development. Newsom’s plan, however, puts on record his goal to either complete them or have them approved by state regulatory bodies before he leaves office.

“I got three more years. And I want to put it all out there,” Newsom said.

Newsom’s embrace of some dam demolitions comes as the largest dam removal project in U.S. history got underway in earnest last week when crews blew a hole in the bottom of the Copco No. 1 dam along the Klamath River near the California-Oregon border. It’s one of four dams set to be removed along the Klamath.

In addition to demolishing dams, Newsom is trying to bring attention to some of the $800 million he has signed off on in recent years for projects that return some creeks and streams to their natural state so that salmon can live there.

Monday, Newsom trudged through thick mud to visit a project along Prairie Creek in Redwoods National Park. The creek had been converted to a ditch, with steep rock walls preventing the water from spilling into a flood plain where baby salmon can eat and grow before heading out to the ocean. The goal is to get the baby fish to stay longer in this creek so they can grow larger before heading out to the ocean — making it more likely they will return.

But the biggest criticism of Newsom’s environmental policies have not been a lack of restoration projects, but a lack of water in the rivers. Newsom’s salmon strategy includes a controversial proposal to seek voluntary agreements with major farmers over how much water they can take out of the rivers and streams. Some environmental groups, including the San Francisco Baykeeper, have called this plan “astonishingly weak.”

San Francisco Baykeeper Science Director Jon Rosenfield said California has already done lots of habitat restoration projects, but they have failed to result in significant boosts salmon populations.

“Without the essential ingredient of a river, which is the flow of water, fish … are not going to survive,” he said. “The governor is out there promising actions that are not adequate to restore the population.”

He also pledged to continue to work with native tribes, who often refer to the rivers where salmon live as their church. Newsom formally apologized to Native American tribes four years ago for how the state had treated them historically. And he has committed to partnering with them to conduct much of the work around salmon habitat.

Monday, Frankie Myers, vice chair of the Yurok Tribe, told Newsom the tribe’s work on Prairie Creek had changed the community by restoring the tribe’s purpose.

“This goes beyond that apology. This is about restoration,” he said.

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  The front gate. (Photo by Daniel Ryan of Daniel James Ryan Photography)

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  The living room. (Photo by Daniel Ryan of Daniel James Ryan Photography)

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  The dining room. (Photo by Daniel Ryan of Daniel James Ryan Photography)

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  The den. (Photo by Daniel Ryan of Daniel James Ryan Photography)

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  The kitchen. (Photo by Daniel Ryan of Daniel James Ryan Photography)

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  The breakfast nook. (Photo by Daniel Ryan of Daniel James Ryan Photography)

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  The soaking tub in the primary bathroom. (Photo by Daniel Ryan of Daniel James Ryan Photography)

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  The pool has a tanning shelf. (Photo by Daniel Ryan of Daniel James Ryan Photography)

A Palm Springs home owned by British actor and filmmaker Emrhys Cooper is on the market for $2.2 million.

The 2,144-square-foot California ranch dubbed “Casa de Rosa” has two bedrooms and three bathrooms. According to the listing, Cliff May is the designer of the 1940s-era house on this quarter-acre lot in The Mesa neighborhood.

Records show Cooper bought the then newly-remodeled and updated home in October 2021 for $1.5 million and even rented it through Airbnb for $357 a night. Cooper shares the house with Irish restaurateur-turned-actor and producer Donal Brophy.

The couple has filled the once all-white interiors with an abundance of rich colors and patterns.

Under the vaulted wood beam ceiling of the living room are dark walls, a fireplace and a built-in bookcase. From there, the house flows into the warmth of the dining room. It holds a tufted cocktail bar with stools.

The den has palm leaf-patterned wallpaper and wood-stained shiplap on the ceiling and walls.

Polished wood floors run throughout the house except in the kitchen. It has black and white checkered floors, stainless steel Viking appliances, a stacked washer and dryer, and a breakfast nook complete with a built-in bookcase.

Checkered floors also adorn the powder room and primary bathroom, which holds a freestanding soaking tub beneath a window and a walk-in shower.

Built-in wardrobes with desks are painted to match the walls in the ensuite bedrooms.

Outside features include a pool with a tanning shelf in the backyard and a fountain in the front yard.

Kennon Earl and Thomas Davila of Compass share the listing.

Cooper, 38, starred in the Emmy-nominated StyleHaul drama series “Vanity” alongside Denise Richards and Karrueche Tran in 2015. In 2021, he made his directorial debut with the 2021 dramedy “The Shuroo Process.” Cooper and Brophy, 44, also wrote, produced and starred in the film that racked up seven wins at various film festivals.

The couple runs the independent entertainment company Idyllwild Picture.

In 2023, the company collaborated with actor and film producer Zachary Quinto on the limited Dekkoo streaming series “Historical Homos,” which Brophy co-hosted.

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  The site’s natural boulders are incorporated into the structure. (Photo by Ricky Lesser for Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty)

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  Cascading waterfalls and native terrain surround the house. (Photo by Ricky Lesser for Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty)

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  The home’s original furniture is available for sale separately. (Photo by Ricky Lesser for Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty)

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  Indoor-outdoor living. (Photo by Ricky Lesser for Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty)

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  The mirrored guest house. (Photo by Ricky Lesser for Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty)

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  Large expanses of glass open to a covered patio. (Photo by Ricky Lesser for Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty)

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  The wine cellar. (Photo by Ricky Lesser for Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty)

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  The house rises from a massive stone wall. (Photo by Ricky Lesser for Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty)

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  The pool terrace. (Photo by Ricky Lesser for Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty)

A Palm Springs midcentury-modern home, originally designed by architect John Kaptur and built into the base of the San Jacinto Mountains, is on the market for $8.75 million.

Cascading rock waterfalls and native terrain surround this 2,932-square-foot house. It has three bedrooms and four bathrooms with boulders integrated into the structure that rises from a massive stone wall.

• For related, see: Late ‘Three’s Company’ star Suzanne Somers’ former Palm Springs home seeks $9M

“Kaptur considered the entire parcel when creating an unmatched environment to enjoy the spectacular setting,” the listing reads.

Large expanses of glass and a graphic roof-line canopy frame the panoramic city and mountain views. A covered patio, pool, spa and koi pond add to the outdoor amenities.

Dubbed “Bougain Villa,” the house dates to 1958 and has only had two owners since then.

The home’s original furniture and artifacts from around the world are available for sale separately, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. That same article mentioned that the original owners hired modernist architect Albert Frey in the 1980s to renovate and expand the home with a mirrored guest house. They then quietly sold it.

Records show it traded hands for $1.09 million in 1999.

Sean Stanfield of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty and Craig Chorpenning of Desert Sotheby’s International Realty share the listing.