DENVER, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Former inmates of U.S. prisons face a greater likelihood of dying, particularly from overdoses, just after their release, a new study found.
Researchers found the risk is highest -- nearly 13 times higher than that of the general population -- during the first two weeks after an inmate leaves prison, HealthDay News said. Recently released inmates face greater risk of death for several weeks post-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 lead author Dr. Ingrid Binswanger, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado in Denver.
Binswanger's team looked at inmates released from the Washington state penal system from July 1999 through December 2003. They cross-referenced prison records with the National Death Index, comparing mortality rates with Washington state residents matched for age, gender and race.
During that time frame, 30,237 inmates were released; 443 died during a follow-up period of almost two years.
The research was published in the Jan. 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
