Prison settings prove valuable.

• Position: Research

Over the years, valid concerns have been raised as to whether research should be allowed in prison settings, based on ethical problems in the past and the fact that prisoners inherently have less free will while incarcerated. However, a University of Iowa, Ames, study indicates that even prisoners with mental illness, compared to healthy non-prisoners, generally are competent to decide to participate in a study and do not feel coerced. The findings raise the question whether prisoners, while needing to be shielded from being treated unethically as a population of convenience, theoretically have been overprotected from taking part in research that eventually could benefit them.

"Our study reveals we didn't find overt coercion among prisoners, and that nearly every prisoner, with one exception, was competent to make a decision about participating in research," relates David Moser, assistant professor of psychiatry in the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and the study's lead investigator. "However, although the prisoners were competent, their scores showed they generally were not as competent as...