In 1944 over 400 prisoners were involved in this two-year study that focused on finding a treatment for malaria. This project began during the war and was conducted by the U.S. Army and the Navy. Prisoners who participated were informed that their through their participation they were contributing to the war efforts, however, they were not told that they would be infected with malaria. While the prisoners were provided informed consent forms, these forms did not explicitly state the risks associated with this experiment or the use of experimental drugs. In the search of finding a treatment, prisoners were given experimental drugs that often had detrimental side effects.
Nathan Leopold, a former prisoner and research subject of the malaria study at Stateville recounts, “even though the inmates had to contend with periodic mosquito bites, raging fevers, nausea, vomiting, blackouts, endless untested medicational potions, and occasional relapses, no one squawked. They all took it like men” (Hornblum, "They Were Cheap and Available.." 1438). In exchange for their participation in the study, prisoners’ were offered an inducement of having their prison sentence shortened. Analyzing these facts one would assume that the prisoners unduly coerced, as they were not fully informed about all the risks and potential physical harm associated with this experiment. However, Nathan Leopold writes, “The docs explained in great detail to each and every volunteer before he was used just what it was planned to do. We were told that that we might be sick, that we might die. No man was coerced or even persuaded. They [prisoners] really were volunteers. But in prison, the concept of ‘volunteer’ is complicated” (Comfort 17).