Breaking in: Gaining entry to prisons and other hard-to-access criminal justice organizations

There exists a large body of literature on doing research with hard-to-access populations such as the mentally ill, gang members, prison inmates, correctional officers, and wardens. There is little discussion, however, on getting access to criminal justice organizations in the first place. This article offers several practical suggestions for “breaking in” to prisons and other criminal justice organizations. This article emphasizes getting access to agency-collected data.