Pine Grove Conservation Camp

Finding someone first

Which agency can tell you anything depends on how the person came here, and the two routes are not searched the same way. Pine Grove holds people under two different legal authorities at the same time.

County placements: People placed by a county juvenile court remain under that county's jurisdiction and its probation department. They are not in CDCR custody in the ordinary sense, so CDCR's public search may not list them. Start with the probation department of the county that committed them.

CDCR participants: People in the Youth Offender Program came from the adult prison system and are in CDCR custody, so the CDCR search route applies to them.

Warning: Do not conclude someone is not at Pine Grove because a CDCR search does not find them. If they were placed by a county juvenile court, that search was never going to find them.

Source: CDCR Pine Grove facility page; Welfare and Institutions Code § 730

Visiting Pine Grove Conservation Camp

This is what the institution publishes, in the order you will meet it: when visits run, how to get approved, how to book and who may come with you.

When visits run

CDCR runs visiting at its conservation camps differently from its prisons. Camps visit on Saturdays and Sundays only — they do not have the three days the institutions moved to in July 2023 — and camps kept hybrid video visiting when the institutions dropped it.

Hours: Camps in the Open Phase offer in-person sessions of any length between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

Warning: Fire crews can be activated at short notice. CDCR tells visitors to call or email the camp for an update before travelling, and Pine Grove is a long drive from anywhere.

Caveat: This is CDCR's camp-wide framework. Pine Grove publishes no visiting schedule of its own, and it does not appear in the contact list on CDCR's camp visit scheduling page. Ring (209) 296-7581 and confirm before you plan anything around it.

County placements caveat: If the person was placed by a county juvenile court, visiting may run through that county's probation department rather than through CDCR's camp process. Ask which applies.

Getting approved first

You have to be an approved visitor before you can book anything. Approval starts with a Visitor Questionnaire, CDCR Form 106.

How to get the form: You cannot download it and send it yourself. The incarcerated person has to send the form to you, and they must sign it first — that signature is what confirms they want you added to their visiting list.

Filling it in: Fill it in completely. The questionnaire asks for every criminal conviction AND every arrest, including arrests that never led to a charge. CDCR runs a background check and will deny approval if the check turns up something the form left out, so list everything. If you cannot recall the details of an old arrest, give the approximate date and the reason as precisely as you can.

Where to send: Mail the completed questionnaire to the Visiting Sergeant or Lieutenant at the institution where the person is housed, addressed to the attention of “Visiting”.

Warning: Most prisons use a DIFFERENT address for mail to staff than for mail to an incarcerated person. Use the staff address. A questionnaire sent to the inmate mail address does not reach Visiting.

What not to do: Do not send the questionnaire to the incarcerated person. It will not be accepted.

How long: Processing time varies by institution, depending on how many forms it receives and how many staff are cleared to review them. CDCR publishes no standard turnaround.

Booking a visit

You cannot book a camp visit through the Visitation Scheduling Application. CDCR states that connectivity problems prevent the camps from offering VSA, so camp visits are arranged by telephoning or emailing the camp directly.

When to call: Ring or email Monday to Friday for a visit that same weekend. CDCR's own example: call from 1 May for a visit on 5, 6 or 7 May.

Video visits: Video visits are requested by email. The request window opens 8:00 a.m. Saturday and closes 8:00 a.m. Monday, for visits the following weekend.

Caveat: CDCR publishes no booking email for Pine Grove. The phone number is the reliable route.

Non-contact and restricted-housing visits

Non-contact visiting is not a choice — it is what applies while someone is in reception (newly admitted to CDCR, or just transferred between prisons) or is segregated.

Who: Reception status, Administrative Segregation, Security Housing Units, Adjustment Centers, someone pending specific rules-violation charges, or anyone assigned to a Behavior Management Unit.

Conditions: The visit happens through a glass partition. Staff escort the incarcerated person in handcuffs, and the handcuffs come off only once they are secured on their side of the booth.

With children: If you would rather a child did not see someone in restraints, wait away from the booth until they are settled.

Limits: Three visitors, not five. Length is limited — usually one to two hours, depending on the prison and on why the visit is non-contact.

How many people may visit

No more than five approved visitors per person, for camps in the Open Phase.

Source: CDCR, Scheduling Visits at Conservation (Fire) Camps · CDCR — How to Get Approved to Visit an Incarcerated Person · CDCR — Types of Visits

Phone calls

Pine Grove is a CDCR conservation camp, not an Amador County jail. The Amador County Sheriff does not run it and cannot answer questions about who is here.

Audio calls from institution wall phones and from tablets are free, and have been since January 2023.

Video: People with tablets get 15 minutes of free video calling every two weeks. That is separate from a scheduled video visit.

Caveat: CDCR does not publish which of these services reach county juvenile-court placements at Pine Grove, whose custody sits with the county. Ask the camp.

Source: CDCR, Scheduling Visits at Conservation (Fire) Camps

Worth knowing before you go

Two things about camp life that families ask about and that are actually written down in law: what the work pays, and how quickly it can take someone away from a planned visit.

Active fire pay: Welfare and Institutions Code section 1760.46 sets $7.25 an hour for a ward or youth hand-crew member at Pine Grove while assigned to an active fire incident. It took effect on 13 October 2025 and the rate is reviewed annually.

Pay caveat: That is the active-incident rate, not the wage for every hour spent at camp. CDCR separately describes ordinary daily camp pay of $5.80 to $10.24 for Youth Offender Program crew members, by skill level. The two figures belong to different things and should not be added together.

Disputes: The same section requires CDCR to maintain an administrative process for disputes about money owed under it.

Source: Welfare and Institutions Code § 1760.46 (added by AB 247, Ch. 681, Stats. 2025)

Inside the institution

Security levels

A minimum-security conservation camp — CDCR camp #12 — with no secure perimeter of the kind a prison has. CDCR's Division of Adult Institutions has maintained it since January 2023, through Sierra Conservation Center, with CAL FIRE providing training and supervising crew work.

Who is here: Two groups. County juvenile-court placements: males aged 18 and over, from counties that contract with CDCR, whose juvenile court ordered the placement and whom CDCR found suitable. And Youth Offender Program participants aged 18 to 25, who came from the adult prison system.

Eligibility: CDCR states county participants must be 18 or older and must already hold a high school diploma or GED, or be able to finish their education at camp. CDCR describes the camp as a programme facility for males adjudicated in juvenile courts.

Youth Offender Program: The Youth Offender Program camp pilot began at Growlersburg Conservation Camp #33 in August 2023 and expanded to Pine Grove in August 2024. Assembly Bill 952 (Chapter 718, signed 13 October 2025) made it permanent by adding Penal Code section 2786.5, and allows — but does not require — CDCR to extend it to other camps.

Caveat: The word "youth" in the name does not mean children are held here. Every documented pathway starts at age 18.

Restricted housing

The official page does not describe a restricted-housing unit or policy.

Source: CDCR Pine Grove facility page; AB 952, Chapter 718, Statutes of 2025 · CDCR

Health care, programmes and release

Health care

The program page states that treatment addresses substance-use and mental-health needs and uses individualized trauma-informed case plans; it does not publish clinic-level service details.

Education, training and work

The point of the camp is training and treatment, not only work. CAL FIRE trains participants and certifies them for wildland firefighting operations; CDCR provides education and trauma-informed treatment for people up to age 25.

Fire and conservation: Crews work wildland fire suppression through the fire season and respond to floods. Between incidents they work in state and county parks on stream clearance, fire prevention and restoration. CDCR puts camp fire-suppression work at roughly 180,000 hours in a normal year across all its camps.

Treatment model: Programmes run on the Integrated Behavior Treatment Model. Staff from every discipline assess each participant and build an individual case plan; the stated aim is to reduce institutional violence and reoffending by teaching people to manage their own circumstances.

Education offered: Academic and vocational education, plus programmes addressing violent and criminogenic behaviour, substance use and mental health.

Leadership: CDCR describes leadership training within the crew structure and a focus on employable skills and work habits.

Preparing for release

How someone leaves Pine Grove depends on which pathway brought them here, and that is a legal difference rather than an administrative one.

County placements: A county juvenile-court placement remains under the committing court and county probation throughout. If CDCR decides someone is no longer suitable for camp, Welfare and Institutions Code section 730 requires it to notify county probation and arrange the return to the county — so a placement can end before the person expected it to.

Expungement caveat: CDCR has said many Youth Offender Program participants may qualify for record-relief pathways after firefighting service. Many is not all: eligibility turns on the individual record and the governing statute, and no one should plan around it without advice.

Source: CDCR, Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp facility page · Welfare and Institutions Code § 730; CDCR Youth Offender Program camp material