Research Access Barriers as Reputational Risk Management: A Case Study of Censorship in Corrections

Abstract

Many criminal justice organizations, including the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), grant research access through their own research branches. I attempted to interview CSC employees for research about programming and policy in relation to in-prison substance abuse, but access was denied. I have turned my experience into a case study, where I treat my correspondence with CSC as a unique source of data. Although access-denied case studies have appeared in the literature on conducting prison research, I apply a novel lens, reputational risk management, to expand the conceptual toolkit for future researchers. I also use interview data from a sample of 16 participants – former CSC senior administrative officials, former CSC front line staff, and external stakeholders – to supplement my analysis. The case study and interviews reveal new insights regarding access barriers, censorship, and the insular character of CSC research. These restrictions can lead to adverse consequences such as the (re)production of limited knowledge about corrections and the curtailment of innovative solutions to problems. I thus encourage researchers to further refine the application of reputational risk to criminal justice settings and to be persistent in their efforts to access correctional organizations.