Duct Tape: An Evaluation of Medical Technical Assistants in California Prison Healthcare.

This paper is a look at Medical Technical Assistants (MTA) in California prison systems. MTAs were the topic of legislative debate in California in 2000 and have resurfaced periodically through legal matters. MTAs hold a questionable position in California prison; they are prison officers empowered with custodial authority, but MTAs are also entrusted with the duty of health service workers. The tension between caring and controlling for prisoners had caused MTAs to be the foci of scrutiny for various prison deaths and the California Department of Corrections healthcare as a whole. This paper looks at how individual MTAs manage the tension of controlling prisoners as officers and caring for their health as nurses. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]