Doctoral Dissertation Research: An Ethnographic Analysis of Care and Criminal Law in California's Mental Health Courts

美国有220万美国人在监狱和监狱中，是世界上监禁率最高的国家之一。鉴于公众对大规模监禁的成本、效率和尊严的日益关注，各县和州制定了旨在减少监禁人数的创新政策。2011年，美国最高法院(Brown v.Plata)裁定，加州大规模监禁的做法违宪，对于患有精神疾病的囚犯来说，受制于加州人满为患的监狱的“残酷和不同寻常”的惩罚尤其困难。在法院做出这一裁决后，加利福尼亚州已经在刑事司法基础设施中试验了替代方案。其中一项实验是发展精神健康法庭，这是一种刑事法庭，渴望将被判有罪的精神疾病患者从监狱中带走，并将他们置于社区精神护理中。心理健康法庭在结构上与其他刑事法庭的不同之处在于，控方和辩护律师与心理学家、精神病学家、社会工作者和法官合作，监测罪犯走向心理健康的进展。在这种情况下，罪犯成为法庭的“客户”。他们被要求遵循法院制定的治疗计划，如果他们偏离了该计划，法官可能会将他们送回监狱。这项由该奖项支持的研究询问，除了促进去监禁之外，这些替代法律计划可能会实现什么？有副作用或意想不到的后果吗？更好地了解心理健康法庭的做法和效果，对于了解旨在纠正大规模监禁的项目的优缺点至关重要。普林斯顿大学博士生杰西卡·库珀将在伊丽莎白·戴维斯博士的监督下，在加利福尼亚州圣克拉拉县和旧金山县的心理健康法庭进行这项研究。她将在两个法庭和法院赞助的诊所进行人种学观察，罪犯当事人通过这些诊所接受护理。她将通过对法庭和临床专业人员以及客户的采访，以及对法庭记录和文字记录的分析来补充这些观察数据。这些数据将使她能够识别和分析客户和州代表之间发展的关系，以确切地调查这些关系是如何工作的，将护理和控制结合在一起，以便通过为刑事司法设计的系统提供公共卫生服务。库珀的研究结果还将阐明地方一级刑事司法系统的结构变化可能在多大程度上影响更普遍的外地关系，如心理健康法庭专业人员、他们的客户和多层政府之间的关系。

With 2.2 million Americans in prisons and jails, the United States has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world. In light of emerging public concerns about the cost, efficacy, and dignity of mass incarceration, counties and states have developed innovative policies designed to reduce the number of individuals behind bars. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (Brown v. Plata) that California's practices of mass incarceration were unconstitutional, and that the "cruel and unusual" punishment of being subject to California's overcrowded prisons was particularly difficult for inmates with mental illnesses. Following this court decision, California has experimented with alternatives in criminal justice infrastructure. One such experiment has been the development of mental health courts, which are criminal courtrooms that aspire to take convicted individuals with mental illnesses out of jails and place them in community psychiatric care. Mental health courts structurally differ from other criminal courtrooms in that prosecution and defense attorneys collaborate with psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and the judges to monitor offender' progress towards mental health. In this context,offenders become "clients" of the courtroom. They are required to follow a court-developed treatment plan, and if they deviate from that plan, the judge may return them to jail. The research supported by this award asks what these alternative legal programs might be accomplishing in addition to the promotion of decarceration? Are there side effects or unintended consequences? Better understanding of the practices and effects of mental health courts is critical for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of programs designed to redress mass incarceration.Princeton University doctoral candidate Jessica Cooper, with the supervision of Dr. Elizabeth Davis, will conduct the research in the mental health courts of Santa Clara and San Francisco counties in California. She will carry out ethnographic observations in the two courtrooms and in the court-sponsored clinics through which offender-clients receive care. She will supplement these observational data with interviews of courtroom and clinical professionals, as well as clients, and with analyses of court records and transcripts. These data will allow her to identify and analyze the relationships that develop between clients and state representatives to investigate exactly how these relationships work to combine care and control in order to provide public health services through a system designed for criminal justice. Findings from Cooper's research also will illuminate the degree to which structural change in the criminal justice system at the local level may affect more general extra-local relationships, as well, such as the relationships between mental health court professionals, their clients, and multiple levels of government.