California has declared an emergency at five prisons due to an upsurge in maximum security level prisoners:

California has declared a "state of emergency" in five of its 32 prisons because of an unexpected influx of inmates who have committed serious crimes, officials said on Tuesday. The decision, effective April 1 but only made public in a Los Angeles Times article on Tuesday, allows prison officials to put three inmates into cells usually used by two and suspends other rules for an open-ended but temporary period.

Perhaps if the state incarcerated fewer non-violent felony offenders, they would have more staff and resources available for those who are truly dangerous. The LA Times has more.

Update: Mark Kleiman has more:

Imprisoning people who need to be there is highly cost-effective crime control. But the voters can't repeal the law of diminishing returns. The larger the prison system, the lower the personal crime rate of the marginal prisoner.

Doubling the number of prisoners between 1980 and 1989 was probably a good investment in crime control, even accounting for the suffering of the prisoners and their intimates. Doubling it again between 1989 and today almost certainly wasn't worth it. Continuing to ratchet up the prison headcount as crime rates fall is madness.