Research involving prisoners
Due to an abundance of past abuse, when incarcerated individuals are involved as research subjects, there are significant limitations on what can and can’t be done with them. For the most part, prisoners are not eligible to be used as research subjects. This includes court ordered individuals in hospitals or rehab facilities, people incarcerated before trails or sentencing, or individuals under house arrest or work release. It does not however include individuals on parole (be they minors or adults).
Situations in which prisoners may qualify to be research subjects are usually limited to four categories:
A few things are relevant to note. Firstly, the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Prisons abides by the pre-2018 edition of common rule. Most prison studies must involve abiding by those policies therefore. Second, Informed Consent in prison studies must always include that non-participation and participation will not in any way affect the participants eligibility for parole (which must be included regardless of whether consent is modified or waived or not) and further, special attention must be given that incentives are not undue influencers to subjects. Simple things like photographs and even small monetary rewards (prisoners are generally unable to earn more than $1 per day) can be very coercive to prisoner subjects. This also outright disqualifies prison staff such as guards from helping in recruitment and enrollment. Thirdly, as minimal risk is defined for non-prisoners as no more than harm they’d receive in their daily lives, this definition does not apply to prisoners. The definition of minimal risk for prisoner subjects is: “the probability and magnitude of physical or psychological harm that is normally encountered in the daily lives, or in the routine medical, dental, or psychological examination of healthy persons.” Fourthly, for all review of studies involving prisoners, there must be a voting prisoner representative on the IRB reviewing the procedures, including if it is only partial board review. This can be a former prisoner, a prison social worker or somebody who has familiarity with prison operations. It is very rare exempted or expedited review should be granted for research involving prisoners.
Special concern must be given to prisoner safety and confidentiality.. Prisoners that are included in studies about pretentious issues such as sexual abuse, being HIV positive (which is personal health information and therefore confidential) or belonging to certain gangs can put them at risk if their participation and the study focus is known. It is important in this situation to take measures to protect the confidentiality of the prisoners personal information, such as including a large number of participants that do not have the targeted trait to dispel suspicion. Further, it must be noted that prisoners are considered a vulnerable population in that their access to coping mechanisms and psychological care may be limited in a prison. Questions of an emotionally charged nature (especially those regarding the circumstances of their arrest or trial) must be given special care to not pose a risk to the populations. Participants should be informed in the informed consent about how much information will be given to prison officials at the conclusion of the study (which should, normally, never include direct identifiers and should be aggregate). Finally, certain behaviors, such as planning to escape, harm oneself or another prison or other such things, are mandated reporting categories under many administrative jurisdictions.
Access to prisons is a complex affair and every jurisdiction will have differing policies. It is often necessary to secure some type of approval before study designs can be finalized. Research will be required to be approved by some administrative body or board within the prison and even if approved, researchers will need to be granted access to the facility by the superintendent. Finally, research must be cognizant to not disrupt the operations of the prison and can be denied for this reason even if it is sound and ethical. Subjects often have strict time schedules to be working and in certain areas at certain times and disruptions to this process may not be allowed by staff. Finally, it should be noted, some smaller institutions such as local or county jails., or juvenile facilities, may lack more formal systems and policies beyond simple ethical standards outlined here. All possible care should be given then to safeguard the well being of the research subjects by the researcher.
A final note, in the event of a research study involving exclusively non-prisoners, if a subject suddenly becomes incarcerated, it is expected that they will be suspended and withdrawn from the study. The only exceptions are when the subject is receiving a positive benefit from the research that it would be especially damaging to discontinue, and this is approved by the IRB. The IRB should then issue a decision to allow the subject to continue to be a part of the study as a single exception (so as to not allow other prisoners to be recruited) and will therefore be beholden to all necessary regulations for prisoner research subjects.