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The main reason California has such problems is the effectiveness of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. CCPOA is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the state and in the past 20 years have forced the prison budget up from under $1billion per year to around $6billion.
They are active in many ways, pressing their own demands for more prisons and supporting get-tough-on-crime groups. They have contributed millions to getting sympathetic candidates in state office. Most controversially they have frequently been accused of abusing the parole system.
Parole officers belong to CCPOA. They can return a parolee to prison on their word and although there is an appeal process, fewer than 1% of prisoners are successful on appeal. Within 2 years of release, almost half of California's parolees are back in prison. They account for half the prison population. Offenders may spend up to 4 years in prison on top of a 1 year sentence, for so-called parole violations.
In addition, California has way too many non-violent offenders in prison, mainly because the state has spent the past 10 years trying to figure out who can be classified as violent and therefore locked up long-term without access to any appeal or review process.
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