Expanding equitable research participation: Development of practice guidelines for prison and jail health research policies

This study, co-led by Dr. Justin Berk (Brown University Health) and Dr. Helen Jack (University of Washington) as multiple Principal Investigators, seeks to develop best practices for carceral research policies. Despite facing high rates of chronic and communicable diseases, incarcerated people are often excluded from health research. To address historical research abuse, federal regulations seek to provide protections for incarcerated participants, yet they lack pragmatic details. Accordingly, many prisons and jails develop individual policies, which vary in approach to participant protection and research access. This project aims to combine consensus-building with normative ethical analysis, seeking to balance research protections and access.