Special Feature: Health Disparities ResearchConducting Research as a Visiting Scientist in a Women's Prison
Section snippets
Violence, Addiction, Infectious Disease, and Mental Illness
Incarcerated women as a group experience violence victimization, drug involvement and addiction, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV infection at disproportionately greater rates than the general population. In a sample of 66 Philadelphia jail inmates, one half had a history of sexual abuse and three quarters had been physically beaten by a boyfriend or spouse (Bond & Semaan, 1996). In North Carolina, pregnant prisoners were compared with pregnant patients seen in the health department and
Troubled History of Prison Research
Minimal public attention was given to prison research during most of its first century in the United States. During this time, diseases were induced for study purposes (Leopold, 1958, Reich, 1995) and up to 85% of all drug toxicity clinical trials were conducted with prisoners (Hoffman, 2000, Kalmbach & Lyons, 2003). As the public became aware of similar research with vulnerable civilian populations, the government finally responded by forming the National Commission for the Protection of Human
Studies in a Prison Nursery
The studies that provide the context for this article have been conducted since 2000 in two correctional facilities for women in a northeastern state prison system. The focus is unique in that the subjects include female inmates convicted of felony crimes and their civilian infants who arrived in the prison because their mothers were pregnant when incarcerated. A statute in this state provides infants with protection against arbitrary separation from their mothers. Because this is one of the
Use of Mandated and Other Human Subject Protections
All 45 CFR 46 requirements were observed for these studies. In addition, the option to apply for a certificate of confidentiality that provides a researcher with the right to resist most legal requests for disclosure of subject information was exercised. Although the 45 CFR 46 protections have been described as “exhaustive” (Kalmbach & Lyons, 2003), a researcher must still confront additional concerns in day-to-day implementation of research. The broader ethical principles articulated in the
Strategies to Optimize Ethical and Continuing Participation of Prisoners in Research
The researcher, who has complied with all federal regulations and achieved IRB and OHRP approval for a study as well as a corrections department's permission to do research in its facilities and who also has acquired the necessary funding and resources, must still confront a series of potential obstacles to the implementation of the approved research. These obstacles are associated with the realities of multiple gateways guarded by state and local administrators with varying understanding of
Discussion
Following decades of prison research without scrutiny and a brief period of virtual halt, there seems to be renewed interest in prisons and jails as research settings and in incarcerated persons as subjects. Search of the CRISP retrieval system reveals four times as many National Institutes of Health-funded studies in this area during the last decade than in all the years since its inception in 1972. Nursing and health literature are beginning to reflect study outcomes. A review of MEDLINE,
Summary and Conclusions
There is an intrinsic culture clash between the punitive and restrictive environment that exists within the custody–control–care mission of correctional systems and the open inquiry environment needed for conduct of research by health care professionals. Federal regulations now protect prisoners as human subjects but additional gatekeeping and communication by researchers are required continuously. Assessment of obstacles and implementation of strategies are an ongoing and dynamic process that
Acknowledgments
This research has been funded in part by the Institute for Child and Family Policy (Columbia University), a New York State Department of Health Commissioner's Priority Award, and currently by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute for Nursing (RO1NR 007782-01, 2003-7; M. Byrne [PI], “Maternal and Child Outcomes of a Prison Nursery Program”).
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Ethical guidance for health research in prisons in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review
2020, Public HealthCitation Excerpt :There are international guidelines that govern the conduct of health research, such as The Declaration of Helsinki15 and the International Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research involving Human Subjects16 and the CIOMS guidelines for epidemiological studies.17 However, despite the growing body of literature regarding people in prison, few publications have provided guidance regarding the specific ethical complexities, challenges and strategies of conducting health research in prisons and other closed settings.11,18–22 There is broad acknowledgement that ‘All vulnerable groups and individuals should receive specifically considered protection’.15
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