San Quentin Chief Medical Officer
What’s the Leading Cause of
Death for Former Inmates?
In 2007, the New England Journal of Medicine published an article titled “Release from Prison- a High Risk of Death for Former Inmates.”
The researchers looked at 443 deaths of more than 30,000 inmates released from the Washington State Department of Corrections from 1999 to 2003 and compared them to the mortality rate of other state residents who were of the same age, race, and sex.
The average age of inmates at the time of release was 33 years old; most of the people were white and male, with an average incarceration of 2 years.
Results of the study are shocking.
In the first 2 weeks after release, former inmates were 12.7 times more likely to die than similar, non-incarcerated, Washington state residents.
The rate was also much higher compared to men and women who stayed in prison. The researchers collected data for 2 years after the inmate had been released. Over the course of those 2 years, the former inmates were still 3.5 times more likely to die.
The leading causes of death of the released inmates were drug overdose, heart attacks, and homicides (in that order).
The article demonstrated that parole or discharge from prison is a significant risk of death.
Several themes demonstrated that there might be things incarcerated adults can do to decrease their risk on release:
Avoid drugs and alcohol. Overdose was the cause of death of at least one quarter of all the deaths. Many inmates have serious addiction problems that have not been confronted. Get treatment now by joining AA or NA inside prison. Don’t “celebrate” on release. After being incarcerated, the body no longer has the same tolerance to drugs and an overdose may happen unintentionally.
Avoid guns. Firearms were involved in 12 percent of the deaths which included homicide, suicide, and accidents.
Take your medications. Heart attacks and strokes were the second leading cause of death in this study. Some of the heart attacks or strokes may also have been caused by illegal drugs. If you have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or diabetes, it is important for you to continue to receive treatment for these conditions.
Don’t smoke. Cancer (mostly lung) was the cause of death 6 percent of the cases.
