The PHRC is a collaborative council dedicated to improving healthcare access, outcomes and policies for incarcerated populations. Our mission is to drive evidence-based and community-based research that addresses the unique health challenges faced by individuals in correctional settings, including mental health, chronic diseases, infectious diseases, and substance use disorders, and many other complex health concerns of those incarcerated. Researchers often include people with lived experience of incarceration as research subjects/participants, however, people who experience incarceration are often systematically excluded from leading and collaborating on research. Including people whose research can make the work more appropriate, valid, and ethical.
A research council of people who had experienced incarceration was established, including populations that are over-represented, creating a space where council members could drive the direction of the council and prison health research.
The council works towards ameliorating the systemic exclusion of people with lived experience of incarceration from research through reflecting the needs, priorities, and issues of people who experience incarceration. This work holds relevance to academia, community organizations or other researchers, in other jurisdictions who want to bring voice, power, and opportunities to the people whom their research is about.
Presenters:
Lindsay Jennings | Community Investigator, Prison Health Research Council – McMaster University
Lindsay Jennings is a research associate with the Tracking IN Justice project at the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Carleton University. She is a person with lived experience of incarceration and is a leader in the advocacy for better health care and human rights while incarcerated.
Fiona Kouyoumdjian | Primary Investigator, Prison Health Research-McMaster University
Claire Bodkin | Primary Investigator, Prison Health Research Council – McMaster University
Presented by the Provincial Human Services and Justice Coordinating Committee on November 5, 2025.