After a series of preventable deaths in the local jail, concern arose in the community regarding the quality and accessibility of health care in Santa Cruz jails. This project is investigating and documenting the conditions of health care in the Santa Cruz County jails, using the methodologies and perspectives of research team members in the Sociology, Film and Digital Media, and Psychology departments, as well as community organization Sin Barras. Sin Barras is a group formed in 2012 in Santa Cruz, CA comprised of individuals dedicated to prison abolition. Sin Barras’ mission is to advocate for meaningful alternatives to incarceration, amplify voices from inside jails and prisons, and connect with local, statewide, national, and international struggles against prisons, with the ultimate goal of abolishing the prison industrial-complex.
The intended outcome of this project is to generate a compelling and informative account of health care in the Santa Cruz jails that centers the experiences of those receiving it, with the ultimate goals of informing the public, making policy recommendations, and amplifying the voices of the formerly incarcerated community.
The 2019 preliminary study (funded by the Blum Center on Poverty, Social Enterprise and Participatory Governance) involved 14 semi-structured interviews with formerly incarcerated people and service providers in community health agencies (call for participation). Interviews with formerly incarcerated people focused on their experiences receiving health care in the local jail, and future interviews with health care providers will focus on their observations about the health needs of formerly incarcerated patients they serve and the continuity of care across the systems available to them. Interviews were conducted by the student co-investigator and audio recorded (with informed consent), yielding recordings to be used in an interactive multimedia presentation during the next stages of the project.
Undergraduate Priyanka Kulkarni (Sociology, Oakes) wrote a thesis on the project in Spring 2020 overseen by SJRC affiliate and Professor of Sociology James Doucet-Battle.
Researchers convened a community advisory panel and prepared to expand the study. As researchers are available, they will conduct additional interviews, code and analyze interview data and develop a prototype for an interactive, online documentary that will share information about the conditions of healthcare in our local jail with the Santa Cruz community.
If you are interested in serving on the advisory panel to the project: We are looking for people directly impacted by this issue (i.e. people who have been incarcerated in the Santa Cruz jail and/or those with a loved one incarcerated in the Santa Cruz jail). The advisory panel will meet occasionally with the research team and provide their input to ensure the project is aligned with the values, goals, and priorities of the people most affected.
If you are interested in being interviewed for this project: We are looking to conduct a total of approximately 20 interviews with people who have recently been incarcerated in the Santa Cruz jail, and with health care providers who work in the jail and/or with criminal justice system-impacted populations (e.g. the homeless population). Interviews will last approximately one hour. Interviewees will be compensated $20 for their time, as funds are available.
If you are interested in participating in the study as an interviewee or an advisory board member, please contact the study coordinator, Roxy Davis, at roxywdavis@ucsc.edu or (831) 222-0289.
Contact
Roxy Davis, Psychology Graduate Student Study Coordinator
Key Faculty
Sharon Daniel (Film and Digital Media)
Jenny Reardon (Sociology)
Consulted Faculty
Mary Beth Pudup (Community Studies), Andrea Steiner (Community Studies)
Community Partners
Sin Barras
Graduate Student Researcher
Roxy Davis
Undergraduate Student Researcher
Priyanka Kulkarni (Sociology, Oakes)
Funders
Preliminary Study: Blum Center
Extended Study: SJRC, UC Art & Design Placemaking Initiative, the UCSC Psychology Department