FROM THE AP:
"The prison was designed to hold 2,200 prisoners but currently has more than 4,000 inmates in its minimum- and maximum-security wings. It was not immediately clear whether crowding may have contributed to the rioting and Bach said it may take several days to determine the exact cause."
FROM
http://www.amnesty-usa.org/rightsforall/prison.html: "More than 1.7 million people are in prisons or jails in the USA. More than 60 per cent are from racial or ethnic minorities. Over half are black. Since 1980 the number of inmates has more than tripled; the number of women inmates has quadrupled.
Some 77,000 inmates are held in privately run institutions. There have been serious complaints about abuse of inmates and poor conditions in privately run facilities in a number of states.
New facilities are being built but they have not kept pace with the demand and many are overcrowded and understaffed, creating dangerous and inhuman conditions. "
From
http://prisonactivist.org/crisis/prison-industrial.html: Horrifying California statistics
In california in the last 10 years:
20 prisons built
1 state university campus and 1 University of California campus built
26,000 jobs added to various state corrections departments
8,000 jobs lost in higher education
Department of Corrections operating budget increased 14%/year
whole state budget increased 7%/year
In 1985 there were 7570 prison guards; in 1990 there were 14249; in 1994 there were 25547.
The yearly salary for a prison guard with 6 years experience is higher than for a starting tenured associate professor at University of California.