T uberculosis (TB) remains a global threat to human health. In 2018, a total of 10 million cases of TB and 1.5 million deaths from TB were reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) (1). Globally, TB notification rates for prisoners are 11-81 times higher than those for local general populations (2). An estimated 10.4 million persons are held in penal institutions throughout the world, and each year the number of persons passing through prison gates could be 4-6 times higher because of high turnover of inmates (3). TB in prisons might spread to the civilian population through staff, visitors, and released prisoners because of inadequate treatment for TB and thus could affect TB control in the general population (4,5). China has the second highest burden of TB in the world (0.9 million incident TB cases during 2018) (1). There were ≈1.7 million prisoners in China during 2016 (3). However, similar to the situation in other countries, TB control in prisons remained largely neglected (6,7). Tianjin, located in northern China, has ≈16 million permanent residents and is one of the pioneering regions for TB control in China. This city had systematically implemented active TB case-finding and directly observed treatment using short-course chemotherapy in all prisons according to the guidelines (8,9). However, despite major achievements, TB incidence among prisoners is still much higher than in the general population in Tianjin (10). It is essential to conduct interventions to identify latent TB infection (LTBI) through screening and prophylaxis in prisons (11). To achieve this goal, we conducted a study to evaluate the prevalence of and risk factors for LTBI by using an interferon-γ release assay (IGRA) in 8 prisons in Tianjin, China. Methods We conducted a baseline cross-sectional study in Tianjin during 2016, followed by providing prophylaxis to prisoners with LTBI and consecutive surveillance of TB incidence. We determined the necessary sample size as >880 persons by using Epi Info (https://www. cdc.gov/epiinfo) to satisfy a cross-sectional design for estimation of LTBI (>480 persons) and a community randomized control trial design (>880 persons). The 8 prisons contained 14,401 prisoners (>18 years of age) and were composed of separate wards, each containing ≈200 persons. Sampling was performed by using a 2-stage process and ward clustering; persons in selected wards participated in a screening procedure for the study.