US jail and prison institutional research policies: a lever in access to research for incarcerated people

Incarcerated people are often excluded from health research, limiting the evidence available to address the specific needs of this population. US federal regulations provide a foundation for research involving incarcerated people, but many prison and jail systems have developed institution-specific policies that further govern research. Carceral research policies may represent an underexamined mechanism for regulating research access in prisons and jails. We analyzed US carceral research policies and found substantial variation across systems, including approaches to ethical oversight and institutional discretion over research activities and dissemination of research findings. The wide variation in policies, power facilities have over research access, and potential censoring of findings highlights the need for more standardized practices. We propose policy changes that would better align carceral research policies with best practices in research governance, facilitating ethical research access and strengthening the evidence needed to address the health needs of this marginalized population.