Research Study

Introduction

You are invited to participate in the first national bilingual study funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) on Understanding the Community Re-entry Needs of Formerly Federally Incarcerated Black Men who have a range of same-gender experiences, including same-gender sex, desires, relationships, identities, who enjoy and love other men, including Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Gender-Diverse, Nonbinary and Queer Men. We want to hear about your experience with community re-entry to better understand: What worked? What did not work? and What changes you would make given the opportunity for improvements? We also want to know how you negotiated stigma, stress, notions of sexualities, gender expressions and trans identity while accessing services and supports in community re-entry. Focusing on one community, we can offer a deeper understanding of their needs for re-entry supports for men into their respective communities across Canada based on a better understanding of what re-entry was like for this community of people. We are interested in this because nothing in Canada is documented and known about how Black gay, bisexual, trans, and queer men (BGBTQM), Black men who have sex with men (BMSM), and Black same-gender-loving men (BSGLM) re-unite with friends and family, acquire housing, access mental health and medical services, seek employment, and the means to have a purposeful and meaningful life in the re-entry process.

Purpose & Description of Research

We are interested in this subject because nothing in Canada is documented and known about how Black gay, bisexual, trans, and queer men (BGBTQM), Black men who have sex with men (BMSM), and Black same-gender-loving men (BSGLM) re-unite with friends and family, acquire housing, access mental health and medical services, seek employment and the means to have a purposeful and meaningful life upon re-entry. Focusing on one community, we can offer a deeper understanding of their needs for re-entry supports. Specifically, we would like to better understand what re-entry was like for you. The study also seeks to inform criminal justice re-entry policy recommendations for community well-being, now and in the future. This includes understanding the experiences and insights of the men directly impacted, community leaders and members of the public, as well as the wider LGBTQ2SI communities, women, and men, who may have both similar and differently gendered experiences of re-entry. The study will contribute to the development of an improved intersectional (race, class, gender, sexuality, stigma, etc.) framework and strategies. We hope that the improved understanding from this study will inform policy and result in better programming and equitable outcomes during re-entry. We hope it will also help inform new services and programs while enhancing existing services, so that they more fully address the urgent need for Black culturally specific, sexually inclusive, gender-affirming, non-binary and trans-affirming approaches and policies. The project will add to the chorus of voices on prison reform and prison abolition in ways that make sense to these diverse communities of Black men and will amplify these voices within academia and to the broader public.

What will you be asked to do in the research?

Participants will be asked to answer a short online Qualtrics survey/questionnaire. Participants will visit a website link, enter the online survey platform, read through the letter of information and consent on the first page, and if they agree, they will move through and complete the survey. If they do not consent to participating in the survey, it will exit the respondent out from the survey. You may decide not to complete the survey at any time. Expected time to complete the survey will be roughly 30-40 minutes. All research will be conducted via the online questionnaire.

Selection Criteria

You must be Black male identified:

age of 21 and over
formerly federally incarcerated in Canada for three years or more
have experienced same-gender experiences, including same-gender sex, desires, relationships, identities, who enjoy and love other men, including Gay, Bisexual, Transmen, Gender-Diverse, Nonbinary and Queer Men

The primary area of research will consider the following:

How have race, class, gender, intergenerational trauma, trans identity, sexual identity, and sexual orientation shaped experiences of re-entry for FFI BGBTQM, BMSM and BSGLM?

Sub-questions include the following:

What was re-entry like? What worked? What did not work? and What changes you would make given the opportunity for improvements? (Supports such as family, housing, mental health, re-entry programme, counselling etc.).

An online survey will be conducted with approximately 150 FFI, BGBTQM, BMSM, and BSGLM between October 2022 and June 2024, across Canada.

If you agree to participate, we will collect detailed information about you through your participation in:

An online Qualtrics re-entry questionnaire from anywhere in Canada.

Anonymous Data Procedure

It will be your choice to participate in the online survey across Canada. The data we collect will be anonymized – meaning no one will be able to identify you from the data. ANONYMOUS DATA means information never has your identity or identifiers associated with it. ANONYMIZED DATA also means the information is irrevocably stripped of direct identifiers, a code is not kept allowing future re-linkage, and risk of re-identification or individuals from remaining indirect identifiers is low or very low. Data will be kept for an indefinite amount of time in a password-protected, encrypted electronic file, with anonymization, lock, and key, and with access restricted to Dr. Crichlow the PI consistent with the original purpose of this study.

Potential Benefits to You

Context: Black Canadians are over-represented in the prison system, but there are no studies on community re-entry by Black people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, gender-non-conforming or intersex (LGBTQI) and its intersections with race, gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation. This study will fill this gap by examining re-entry experiences by this community. We hope the study will help inform new strategies on care, support, and alternatives during re-entry, while amplifying your voice. As a participant you will have a chance to reflect on your re-entry experiences in terms of what worked and what did not work for you. The study results will amplify your voice and your unique experience of re-entry. This study may also help to suggest areas for future research and to inform policy making for re-entry among the BGBTQM, BMSM, and BSGLM community.

Potential Discomforts or Harms to You

Risks or discomfort from your participation in the research include discomfort with recalling experiences of homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, and anti-Black racisms and reliving associated traumatic events. A list of health care supports will be provided and the phone number of a counsellor that you can access for free counselling support. The Principal Investigator will protect your records and keep confidential all the information in your on-line survey This information will be kept in a password-protected, encrypted electronic file that only the principal researcher will have access to, so limiting risks of your words being shared outside of the context of the study.

Confidentiality and Privacy

Any records, documentation, or information related to you will be anonymized directly following data collection which ensures that your data cannot be used to identify you. No identifying information about you will be stored anywhere other than the password-protected, encrypted electronic database. You will not be named in any reports, publications, or presentations that may come from this study, unless you indicate otherwise. You will be asked to provide general demographic information about yourself (e.g., age, gender, sexual identity, re-entry experience, sexual orientation), but in any published reports this information will be presented in ways that respect your anonymity, including by changing details of your demographic information like the community of re-entry. Furthermore, no identifying information, such as your name, will be collected thus it cannot be kept in the database or shared with anyone. Your information will be collected only for the purpose of this research study and the researcher will not disclose any information without the participant’s permission.

Compensation Options

There is no cost to you for participating in this study, it is voluntary and confidential. Reimbursement for participating in the study includes an online survey and a brief 15–20-minute legibility follow-up online interview. Only qualified participants will receive $75 for the online survey and $75 for the brief 15–20-minute legibility follow-up online interview. You also have the option of receiving one wellness and therapy support session, from a Black professionally trained expert and advocate for support.

Study Contact

If you have any questions about the study please contact the Principal Investigator, Dr. Wesley Crichlow.

If you have any ethical concerns or complaints about your participation in this study, and want to speak with someone not on the research team, please contact the Research Ethics Office at 905-721-8668 Ext. 3693 or by email at researchethics@ontariotechu.ca citing REB file number: 15635

Voluntary Participation

Your participation in this study is voluntary, and you may partake in only those aspects of the study which you feel comfortable answering. You may also decide not to be in this study, or to be in the study now, and then change your mind before pressing the final submit button. You may leave the study at any time before you press the final submit button (by simply closing the browser) with no consequences.

Right to Withdraw

If you withdraw from the research project at any time before pressing the final submit button, any data that you have contributed will be removed from the study, and you do not need to offer any reason for making this request. Please note that you cannot withdraw from the study after you press the final submit button because the data are anonymous, and therefore, there is no way to identify or retrieve your specific information. Participants who withdraw prior to the final submit button will have their data deleted.

Conflict of Interest

Researchers have an interest in completing this study. Their interests should not influence your decision to participate in this study.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the sponsor of this study, will reimburse Ontario Tech and the researcher for the costs of doing this study. All of these people have an interest in completing this study. Their interests should not influence your decision to participate in this study.

Project Finding or Results

If you are interested in being informed of the results of the study, please contact the PI, the community partners, or the project website for initial results. You will not receive feedback about your individual participation because only aggregate results will be published.

Participant Rights and Concerns

Please read this consent form carefully and feel free to ask the researcher any questions that you might have about the study, using the email address listed above. If you have any questions about your rights as a participant in this study, complaints, or experience adverse events, please contact the Research Ethics Office at (905) 721-8668 ext. 3693 or at researchethics@ontariotechu.ca. By signing this form, you do not give up any of your legal rights against the investigators or sponsors, nor does this form relieve the investigators, sponsor or involved institutions of their legal and professional responsibilities.

Debriefing and Dissemination of Results

The results of the research project will be published in the form of peer-reviewed articles, disseminated on the project website, in various Black LGBTQI community sessions, on community partner websites, on advisory committee members websites, and submitted to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council roundtable in 2025/2026. Further, the results may be presented at a conference, community roundtables and/or used in an article about this study for a journal. Neither you nor your information will be identified directly or indirectly in any publication. You can ask for a copy of any of the publications stemming from this research and all community forums about the project will be free or you can contact Dr. Wesley Crichlow, Principal Investigator.