Doctoral Dissertation Research: Hospital Beds and Jail Beds: Los Angeles County and the Imagination of Poverty (1978-2010)

洛杉矶县政府每年都面临着关于公立医院安全网和庞大监狱系统之间资源分配的政治辩论。近30年来，政策制定者一直在与长期人满为患的监狱和医院作斗争。这个项目是对1978年至2010年洛杉矶县监狱和公立医院人满为患的政策制定的档案审查。它提出了以下研究问题：什么对贫困的意识形态理解的变化可能会影响当地的决策，扩大和收缩医院和监狱床位，改变谁可以睡在这些床位上，以及他们可以在这些床位上睡多久？“对贫困的意识形态理解”指的是这样的概念：什么类型的穷人是项目的目标，他们打算纠正对他们行为的什么假设，以及谁有资格接受刑事司法和公立医院的参与。该项目利用了以下形式的档案资料：县行政长官与其顾问工作人员之间的备忘录、部门负责人之间的交流、咨询的报告和用于告知政策的研究、会议纪要、相关剪报和宣传行动。这些来源记录了立法意图，因为它实时围绕县危机事件、试点项目和其他努力来解决医院和监狱过度拥挤的社会问题。该项目旨在让政策制定者了解他们试图解决过度拥挤的问题，参与关于穷人应得和不应得的理论，并回应最近关于研究当代美国城市刑事司法和社会福利政策之间相互作用的学术呼吁。

Los Angeles County government faces annual political debates over the distribution of resources between its public hospital safety net and its vast jail system. For almost three decades policy-makers have grappled with chronically overcrowded jails and hospitals. This project is an archival examination of policy-making concerning jail and public hospital overcrowding in Los Angeles County from 1978 to 2010. It asks the following research question: What changing ideological understandings of poverty might have informed local decision-making to expand and contract hospital and jail beds, shift who gets to sleep in them, and for how long they get to sleep in them? The term "ideological understandings of poverty" makes reference to conceptions about what types of poor people are programs meant to target, what assumptions about their behavior are they meant to correct, and who is and is not eligible for criminal justice and public hospital engagement. The project utilizes archival sources in the form of memos between county administrators and their advisory staff, communication between department heads, consulted reports and studies used to inform policy, meeting minutes, relevant newspaper clippings, and publicity actions. These sources document legislative intent as it evolved in real-time around county crisis events, pilot projects, and other efforts to solve the social problem of hospital and jail overcrowding. The project aims to inform policy-makers regarding their attempts to tackle overcrowding, to engage theory on the deserving and undeserving poor, and to answer recent calls for scholarship that considers the interaction between criminal justice and social welfare policy in contemporary urban America.