Prisons in California

Prisons in California, which are part of the California penal system (which had 170,588 inmates as of 2007 - 475 inmates per 100,000 state residents), has been the focus of attention for growing influence upon the state's political arena. Former Governor Gray Davis was accused of favoring the prison guard union more than the interests of education. Allegations of prisoner abuse gave rise to increased attention of the prison oversight committees. Accusations of police guard favoritism by these committees have occurred as well.

The California system has been a focus and origin of many trends in prison conditions within the United States as a whole. The state's large and diverse population, large size, large urban areas, history of gang and drug-related crime, tough sentencing laws and its status as an entry point to the U.S. for both immigrants and drugs has given California a large and complex prison environment. With more than 170,000 prisoners occupying facilities designed for 83,000, California prisons are overcrowded, with most facilities holding more than 200% of their design capacity, forcing prisoners to triple-bunk in open gymnasiums and day rooms.

The system, like the state as a whole, lacks a racial/ethnic majority among the population, with Hispanic inmates making up approximately 37% of the population, black and white inmates each representing about 27%, and other inmates representing 8% as of 2006. Prisoner identification and affiliation is tied closely to race and region of the state, which has contributed to tension and violence within the system. There has been a long running racial tension between African American and Southern Mexican American prison gangs and significant riots in California prisons where Mexican inmates and African Americans have targeted each other particularly, based on racial reasons. California is the birthplace of many of the country's most powerful and best-known prison gangs, such as the Aryan Brotherhood, the Nuestra Familia (which is a branch of the Nortenos which allies with African American gangs), Surenos 13 that branch of another powerful and best-known prison gang the Mexican Mafia. State efforts against these gangs made California a pioneer in the development of Security Housing Unit "supermax" control-unit facilities.

The overcrowded conditions and accusations of inadequate medical facilities and mistreatment have caused the federal courts to intervene in the system's operation since the 1990s, appointing special oversight and enforcing consent decrees over the system's medical system and the SHU units and capping populations at several facilities. As of 2007, the state has plans to continue to expand the system and to involuntarily transfer inmates to other states or federal prisons. Also as of 2007, by order of federal courts, the system's medical system is under federal receivership, and a federal court may impose a mandatory limit on the system's total population by June 2007.

Prison Spending
California has "seen its prison-related spending swell to $10.4 billion for the 2008-2009 fiscal year (Washington Post, 5/5/08)".