The Administration of Hospital and Jail Overcrowding and the Illusion of Policy Success

• In Event: 254 - Section on Community and Urban Sociology Paper Session. Transformations in Contemporary Urban Governance: New Theoretical and Empirical Directions

Abstract

In an era of routine austerity, state officials must continuously find solutions to a mismatch between available public funds and the public’s legally recognized right to state-administered resources. This paper offers empirical evidence and new theory of urban poverty management to understand how state actors go about solving this mismatch. In short, overwhelmed public institutions, like overcrowded public hospitals and county jails, are able to, despite disastrous underfunding, provide services to large numbers of people and create an illusion of policy success through what the author calls "obstructing demand" and the "circulation of caseloads".

Author

• Armando Lara-Millan, University of California - Berkeley