Prison Release a Dangerous Health Time for Many

Former inmates have higher immediate risk of death from drug overdose, homicide and suicide, study finds.

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
Thursday, January 11, 2007; 12:00 AM

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WEDNESDAY, Jan. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Former prison inmates face a much higher risk of death in the period right after their release, particularly from drug overdoses, a new study found.

The risk is highest -- 12.7 times that of the general population -- during the first two weeks after release. Overall, the excess risk is 3.5 times that of the general population, and the risk for both women and men doesn't return to normal levels until several weeks after release.

"I was expecting an increased risk of death, but I was surprised at the extent of the increase and by how there is such a strong vulnerable time in the first two weeks," said the study's lead author, Dr. Ingrid Binswanger, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. "It suggests that there might be things we can do to help people transition back."

The United States now has more people incarcerated than at any time in its history. At the end of 2005, more than 2 million people were being held in federal or state prisons or local jails, an increase of 2.7 percent from the end of 2004. On average, the number of prisoners has grown 3.3 percent annually since 1995, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Studies conducted in Europe and Australia have suggested that after-release mortality rates were higher in certain populations of inmates, including people with a history of intravenous drug use. But little information had been available for the United States.

"To the extent that I know, this is the first study of its kind in the United States," Binswanger said.

For her research, which is published in the Jan. 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Binswanger and colleagues looked at all inmates released from the Washington state Department of Corrections from July 1999 through December 2003. The prison records were then cross-referenced with the National Death Index, and resulting mortality rates were compared with Washington state residents matched for age, gender and race.