The social construction of target populations and the transformation of prison-based AIDS policy: a descriptive case study.

When interpreting policy changes, it is important to understand the social construction of those whom the policy affects. Policy Design Perspective by Schneider and Ingram (1993) concentrates on the construction of "agents" and "targets" in an attempt to comprehend policy formation and transformation. The following descriptive case study uses this design to assess the evolution of one prison's AIDS policy. This institution's HIV/AIDS policy originally was quite restrictive in nature, but the changing perceptions of the agents and targets allowed a more humanistic approach to emerge in the handling of HIV-positive inmates.