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A study has found that those who have recently been released from prisons are at significantly higher risk of dying than those still in jail and those in the general population.
The death rate for former prisoners was about four times higher than that of current inmates, and more three times higher than that of the general population, even when sex, race, and age were accounted for.
The leading cause of death: drug overdose. Thirty percent of the extra deaths were from overdose.
More Study Findings
The study also found that the highest death rates were among prisoners who were released within the two weeks prior to their deaths. These inmates were found to be 13 times more likely to die than the general population, and again, the vast majority of the extra deaths – 80 percent – were from drug overdoses.
The other leading causes of death were suicide, murder, and heart disease.
Ingrid A. Binswanger, the doctor from the University of Colorado who initiated the study said she was surprised at how marked the differences in death rates were. The findings, she said, could point to a big problem. In the United States, about 700,000 inmates are released from prisons each year.
“These are preventable deaths, particularly the overdose deaths,” said UCLA public health professor, Martin Y. Iguchi. “We need to pay much more attention to inmates as they re-enter society.”
Joan Petersilia, a criminologist, said the study would highlight the effects of what happens to prisoners when they are released. For example, some states take psychiatric medication away from inmates when they are released leaving them to seek help for themselves. Many of them don''t, and as a result, many die or suffer relapses.
Study SpecificsThe study is to appear in the New England Journal of Medicine today. It observed 30,237 former inmates of the Washington state prison system between 1999 and 2003. The researchers cautioned that the statistics may not reflect national trends, though similar findings have been reported in studies conducted in Australia and Finland.
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