For years, California’s massive, out-of-control inmate population has been a cash cow for the prison industry. Now, with the state being forced by the courts to reduce the number of men and women it’s keeping in boxes, the prison profiteers—including both corporations and prison-guard unions—are trying to squeeze every cent they can out of the government.

The number of prisoners in California peaked in 2006 at 163,000, which was far too many for the system’s 33 detention centers to handle—inmates were sleeping on bunk beds in gyms converted into improvised dorms. In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that these conditions constituted cruel and unusual punishment and ordered the state to reduce the prison population to 110,000.

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Like other unions, the CCPOA also works on behalf of its members for better pay and improved working conditions. But prison guards are in a unique position: their jobs depend on prisons being open for business. As Joan Petersilia, a professor at Stanford Law, told the League of Ordinary Gentlemen blog, it’s really just simple economics:

“More prisoners lead to more prisons; more prisons require more guards; more guards means more dues-paying members and fund-raising capability; and fundraising, of course, translates into political influence.”