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If the past 20 years are any indication, the union representing California's prison guards stands to receive a sizeable portion of the revised state budget proposal being released Thursday.
The 31,000-member California Correctional Peace Officers Association is the second-largest state employees union in California, and arguably the most influential lobby group in the state.
When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger releases his revised state budget Thursday, known as the May Revise, the union will again have a chance to display its resounding influence in California politics.
The union has developed its pull in the backdrop of governors who advocated tough stances on crime and helped bloat the California prison population in the past 20 years, said Geoffrey Segal, the director of government reform at the Reason Public Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank based in Los Angeles.
As the prison population grew from about 20,000 in 1980 to over 160,000 today, the state poured more money into the prison system to build more facilities and hire additional guards.
"They're one of the top three budget expenditures," Segal said. "Money translates into political influence."
With increasing revenue, the union was freer to contribute funds to political campaigns and causes and expand its influence in California politics.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the union was the largest contributor to the campaign of former Gov. Gray Davis at around $3.4 million, and has spent nearly $10 million since 1998 in direct campaign contributions.
Segal said the union has contributed to the campaigns of candidates from each of the major parties in every election. The union spends around $7 million each year supporting political causes.
The union's political clout has raised concern that the lobbying may come at the expense of other unions, like the 335,000-member California Teachers Association.
The CCPOA has been able to get "huge contracts" in a state budget with "a limited amount of resources," which can detract from the funds allocated to other groups, Segal said.
"That's a detriment to public education and other groups in the state," he added.
But while public policy institutes can criticize the CCPOA for its tactics, the unions are keeping quiet.
The CTA declined to comment, and the CCPOA did not return calls from the Daily Bruin on Monday and Tuesday.
"Unions kind of have an unwritten rule that they don't go out and criticize publicly other unions," Segal said.
This custom of silence characterizes both the unions as a whole and their individual members.
Segal said the CCPOA has the "least accountability" of any union because many attacks and deaths of prison inmates go unacknowledged and unpunished.
The union's strength has developed from this solid internal support and secrecy about its inner workings, said Mark Kleiman, a UCLA professor of public policy. The union has made its members the highest-paid prison guard force in the country, he said, and its members have returned the favor in loyalty to the union.
Kleiman said he had spoken to members of law enforcement that characterized the union's actions as "a conspiracy to obstruct justice" in the way it allegedly covers up prison abuses. He said they had seen evidence of "coordinated perjury" and "outreach to potential jurors" in order to acquit prison guards accused of abuses.
In an effort to penetrate this wall of silence and increase operational efficiency, Schwarzenegger announced two weeks ago he will appoint former Gov. George Deukmejian to head a commission to review the state's prison system.
Schwarzenegger is the least indebted to the union of any recent governor, and some have called on him to stand up to the union and level the perceived imbalance of political power. This commission has been seen as the first step toward achieving that goal.
"The entire state is waiting to see what's going to happen with the performance review," Segal said.
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