An article published in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has added stark detail to a line of research already considered ethically despicable: experiments conducted between the 1940s and 1970s on inmates at a penitentiary in the US state of Illinois, who were deliberately infected with the malaria parasite to test antimalarial drugs. The study at Stateville Penitentiary is infamous for its use of coercive methods to involve inmates in its scientific experiments, such as offering them money and reduced sentences, in an environment where the idea of consent is questionable.
Led by the University of Chicago’s School of Medicine, the US Army, and the US State Department, the research effort initially resulted in the development of an antimalarial drug, primaquine. The official Stateville records stated that the experiments only included White inmates. Black prisoners, in fact, did not participate in the initial phases of the study due to the erroneous assumption that people of African descent would have some form of immunity to malaria and their participation would thus skew the results.
However, James Tabery and Hannah Allen of the University of Utah, the authors of the JAMA article, found that this changed over time. From the 1950s onward, Black inmates became a new target of investigation because they exhibited high sensitivity to primaquine. To study reactions to the drug, scientists at Stateville deliberately infected Black inmates with the malaria parasite and then administered high doses of primaquine, knowing it could cause debilitating pain. Prisoners with a disorder known as glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency experienced adverse effects, such as nausea, fatigue, and even organ failure.
Tabery and Allen analyzed scientific papers and files kept by the Stateville researchers, finding that Black inmates received less compensation than White prisoners. Their family members were also asked to take part in a branch of the study that sought to trace the genetic origins of primaquine sensitivity. “This raises questions about how coercive dynamics can extend outside prison walls,” Tabery told Science. He now wants to share the untold story of these Black inmates through science education programs and museums in the Chicago area, where they lived.
The story above was published with the title “The untold story of Black inmates who participated in a coercive malaria study” in issue 353 of July/2025.
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