Participation With Compensation: Ethical Considerations for Research Payment Practices With People Who Are Incarcerated

The participation of incarcerated individuals in research is necessary to appropriately address the health disparities that affect them and to adapt and implement health services for the carceral setting. Incarceration significantly impacts health, leading to negative outcomes including accelerated aging and increased mortality, with these effects disproportionately impacting communities of color. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Human Research Protections outlines ethical approaches to compensating individuals who participate in research activities, yet lacks specific guidance for payment within carceral settings. Historical abuses in carceral research underscore the persistent need for robust protections for incarcerated research participants. Existing regulations offer some protection but inadequately address ethical payment practices. Substantial variability in payment policies across carceral systems and vague national guidelines pose ethical challenges in ensuring equitable treatment for incarcerated research participants. We outline the ethical concerns related to compensating incarcerated individuals for participating in research and present a framework of approaches to payment. We argue for payment parity between incarcerated and community research participants. More community-engaged research is needed to understand the perspectives of incarcerated individuals on ethical payment.