Unique Concerns with Prisoner Research
Exempt Research Using Prisoners
Prisoners may not be specifically recruited in Exempt research. However, prisoners may participate in Exempt research if their enrollment is incidental (i.e., they respond to a public recruitment solicitation and are not selected for being prisoners).
Issues Unique to Prisoner Research
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It can be difficult to determine at what point prisoner participation is free choice/voluntary, as they are confined and could feel coerced into participation to look good for the penitentiary
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Use of incentives must be done carefully as not to appear as coercion
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Consent must be done with full disclosure of what will occur in the study
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Confidentiality should be taken extremely seriously when considering the sensitive information that can be collected when working with prisoners
A brief assessment will follow this page.