Ethics of Working with Incarcerated Populations: A View From the IRB

Abstract

This article will present our perspective, as Institutional Review Board (IRB) members, on the experiences and issues that emerge when conducting research with incarcerated populations. The goal is to provide information to other IRBs and researchers to ease the review process of research protocols involving prisoners and to mitigate potential problems before they arise. We focus in this article on one project we reviewed that involved prisoners. Vulnerable populations such as prisoners require special conditions and protections for recruitment, consent, compensation, data collection, data protection, and analysis. Special considerations also include compliance with detention center policies and procedures, especially when the research project includes analyzing data containing Private Identifiable information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), and biological data collection. The four main issues we will address are in regard to (1) the informed consent process, (2) the balance between privacy and confidentiality of the subjects and researchers' safety within the facility, (3) payment to subjects, and (4) the ability of subjects to communicate with researchers and with the IRB. We will conclude with some recommendations for “best practice.”