who benefits from increase in incarcerations?

Politicians and prison guard unions go together like chicken and noodles. The unions like politicians who like to demonstrate that they are tough on crime. The politicians like the unions because they donate buckets of money to ensure legislators who are tough on crime.


Job security for prison guards is found in higher incarceration levels. 

Although California’s prison building boom began before the prison guards’ arrival as a political force, the union has been both a supporter and a beneficiary of that expansion. Of the state’s 33 prisons, 23 have been built since 1984.  

Twenty-three prisons built in California since 1984! Imagine how many new guards were hired in that time; imagine the increase in the amount of money in the union coffers, the amount of money the union could spend on political races.


An increase in successful prosecutions is necessary for the survival of prison guard unions.