Heart disease and suicide continue to be the two leading causes of death in local jails, accounting for 61 percent of all jail deaths in 2011, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).
Over the 12-year-period 2000-2011, suicide accounted for between 34 and 48 deaths per 100,000 inmates, the bureau reported.
Males accounted for nearly nine in 10 deaths in local jails. Whites accounted for more than 59 percent of local deaths in the year 2011. Also in 2011, jail residents 55 and older died at a rate that was three times the rate for younger inmates (650 per 100,000).
Also in 2011, more than a third (39 percent) of deaths occurred within the first week of admission to a jail facility. About half of suicides (48 percent) and a third (32 percent) of heart disease deaths occurred during the first week of admission. Between 2000 and 2011, male jail inmates were 1.6 times more likely to commit suicide than were female inmates. From 2000 to 2010, the suicide rate for white inmates was three times higher than the rate of other races.
Cancer and heart disease were the two leading causes of death in state prisons in 2011, accounting for 56 percent of deaths. The mortality rate for heart disease was 65 deaths per 100,000 prisoners during 2000-2011.
In state prisons, the illness-related mortality rate increased 4 percent from 2010 to 2011. Cancer was the most common cause of death in 2011, followed by heart disease, liver disease, respiratory disease and AIDS-related deaths.
In 2011, male prisoners accounted for more than 96 percent of prison deaths. White prisoners accounted for half of prison deaths between 2001 and 2010, black inmates accounted about one-third of prison deaths between 2001 and 2011. In 2011, male mortality rate was 1.6 times higher than female rates.
Between 2001 and 2011, black state prisoners committed suicide at one-third of the rate of white state prisoners.
Prisoners 55 and older died at rates five times higher than for any other age group for cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease.
Between 2002 and 2010, the cancer mortality rate increased 22 percent for males and 79 percent for females. The cancer rate for whites increased 33 percent and blacks increased 24 percent during this same period. (BJS website is www.bjs.gov.)
