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Researchers have announced that being released from prison may pose a hazard to health, according to one of the first large-scale studies of death rates among ex U.S. prison inmates.

The study found that the mortality rate for released prisoners was four times higher than the rate for current inmates, and over three times that of the general population—even after factors such as age, race, and sex were taken out. Researchers said that over 30 percent of the deaths were a result of drug overdose.

More Study Findings

The study also found that the rate of deaths were the highest within the first couple of weeks after an inmate’s release—newly released prisoners were 13 times more likely to die than the general population and nearly 80 percent of deaths occurred from drug overdose.

Other leading causes of death after drug overdose included suicide, murders, and heart disease.

Public Health Problem

According to lead author of the study Ingrid A. Binswanger, the new research may indicate a significant health problem since almost 700,000 Americans are released from U.S. prisons every 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.”

The study looked at 30,237 ex-inmates between 1999 and 2003 from the Washington state prison system. The findings will be published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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