Doing Prison Research: Views From Inside

Abstract

This article is coauthored by four prisoners and a prison-researcher. In it, the authors discuss the differing aims and aspirations of research participants and scholars and their implications for doing prison research. Unlike most other accounts of prison research, the authors stress the experience of those being interviewed rather than that of the interviewer. The authors pay particular attention to the emotional nature of being part of a study and how a researcher gains participants’ trust. The authors also consider the utility of academic research and how inmate voices might be effectively harnessed to build a sustained critique of the U.S. prison system.