Good in Theory, Complex in Practice: Reflections on Power and Privilege in Carceral Participatory Research

Increasingly, research on legal system involvement has engaged in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). Drawing on reflections from our CBPR project focused on reentry from prison, we address three key questions: (1) Who is the “community” in CBPR? (2) What are the challenges in maintaining partnerships? And (3) How does CBPR exist in the framework of a larger neoliberal context? We highlight tensions around lived experiences, capacity, time, ethics, and constraints from the university and parole. We demonstrate that while CBPR is good in theory, practical and ethical considerations related to power and privilege cannot go unchecked.