Controlling Research Access: Reflections on a Community-Based Study with Former Prisoners

• In Event: Deconstructing Research Silences through Qualitative Research

Abstract

Access barriers are common to research involving prisoner populations. In Canada, the federal prison agency has the authority to approve or deny research access to external researchers. This authority gives the agency a certain monopoly over carceral research that can have wide-reaching implications for the content and quality of scholarship on prisons. In this presentation, we reflect on access challenges encountered during a community-based research study that collected perspectives on in-prison injection drug use and the potential benefits and drawbacks of prison-based harm reduction programs. To ensure relevancy, research on prisoner health requires the insights of people with lived experience of incarceration, yet we were denied research access to current prisoners and people on parole. Nevertheless, we successfully recruited a cross-section of highly knowledgeable former prisoners, with the assistance of numerous community-based organizations. Although we complied with directives from the Canadian federal prison agency, important questions remain regarding how researchers could pursue or facilitate access to people on parole and whether university and other research ethics boards can provide additional supports in such endeavors. We note a number of other important considerations, such as recruitment challenges, that might arise when conducting research with former prisoners.

Authors

• Tara Marie Watson, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

• Emily van der Meulen, Ryerson University