In Fall 2020, UCSC Film and Digital Media Professor and Science & Justice Affiliate Sharon Daniel launched Unjustly Exposed (https://www.unjustlyexposed.com/), an interactive documentary on COVID in San Quentin prison. The interactive web project is a cumulative public record and evolving history of the pandemic’s impact on those incarcerated. Exposed is the latest in a series of new media documentary projects created by Daniel that reveal social and economic injustice across public institutions, including the criminal justice system, the prison industrial complex, the public health system, and the public education system.

Learn more in this campus news article, “UCSC arts professor documents spread of COVID-19 inside prisons, jails, and detention centers.”

Contact

Sharon Daniel (Film and Digital Media)

Undergraduate and Graduate Researchers – Fall 2021

Matei Galic, a Rachel Carson College affiliate, is a Politics and Legal Studies major. He is interested in constitutional law and in attending law school in the future, but before then wants to gain experience with political research on political demography and shifts in voting behavior.

Ching Jung Lai (Joyce), a College Nine affiliate, is a Human Biology undergraduate. She is enthusiastic about investigating the conditions of healthcare in jails and advocating the prisoners’ rights of receiving proper healthcare.

James Opilas, a College 10 affiliate, is a Legal Studies undergraduate. James hopes to advocate for underrepresented groups’ health and well-being. After graduating, he plans to pursue a higher education at law school, after which he plans on specializing in immigration law or criminal law.

Andrea Pastor, a Stevenson affiliate, is a Politics and Philosophy undergraduate. She is passionate about criminal justice reform & immigration rights so she plans to go to law school to help give a voice to those who have been stripped of their own.

Sophia Parizadeh, a College 10 affiliate, is a Politics undergraduate. Sophia is strongly interested in prison reform and advocacy for rights of incarcerated individuals. Sophia plans on attending law school after graduating from UCSC.

Undergraduate and Graduate Researchers – Summer 2021

Ching Jung Lai (Joyce), a College Nine affiliate, is a Human Biology undergraduate. She is enthusiastic about investigating the conditions of healthcare in jails and advocating the prisoners’ rights of receiving proper healthcare.

Sophia Parizadeh, a College 10 affiliate, is a Politics undergraduate. Sophia is strongly interested in prison reform and advocacy for rights of incarcerated individuals. Sophia plans on attending law school after graduating from UCSC.

Matt Sioson, a Cowell college affiliate, is a Legal Studies undergraduate. Matt serves as the director of the Walls to Bridges Book Project, a student-volunteer run non-profit which sends books to children on behalf of their incarcerated family members. In May 2021, Matt was recognized by the Donald A. Strauss Public Service Scholarship Foundation in support of his work with the project. Matt plans on attending law school after graduating from UCSC and also serves as President of the UCSC chapter of the Phi Alpha Delta pre-law Fraternity to help provide resources and strategies for his peers who are also striving towards a career in law.

Abram Stern (aphid), a Ph.D. candidate at UC Santa Cruz in Film and Digital Media. Abram is an artist and scholar whose work analyzes media and metadata related to the oversight of public bureaucracies related to policing and surveillance while surfacing apparatuses of sense-making and that make this analysis possible and opacities that obstruct it.

Undergraduate Researchers – Winter and Spring 2021

Norhan Abolail, a Kresge affiliate, is a Psychology undergraduate minoring in Legal Studies. She is passionate about advocating for prisoners’ rights, abolishing the prison industrial complex, and eliminating unpaid labor in prisons.

Shana Salem, a Rachel Carson College affiliate, is a Feminist Studies and Cognitive Science undergraduate. 

Emily Schweitzer, a Porter college affiliate, is a Politics and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies undergraduate. After graduating, Emily plans to use her combined disciplines to pursue a field in immigration law, or abolition work. She is also currently in an internship working on DEI efforts at the UCSC Norris Center.

Matt Sioson, a Cowell college affiliate, is a Legal Studies undergraduate. Matt is strongly interested in criminal justice reform and has been volunteering with the Walls to Bridges Book Project to help keep children connected to their incarcerated loved ones. Matt plans on attending law school after graduating from UCSC. In May 2021, Matt was recognized by the Donald A. Strauss Public Service Scholarship Foundation in support of his work sending books to children with incarcerated family members.

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