If there is anything more risky than going to prison, it may be getting out of prison, a new study shows.
In the first two weeks after release, former inmates die at a rate 13 times that of the general population, a University of Colorado researcher has found.
The leading cause of death among former inmates is – by a whopping margin – drug overdose. And the most common deadly drug is cocaine, according to the study by Dr. Ingrid Binswanger which will appear in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.
Heart attacks pose the second greatest risk to the newly freed, followed by homicide.
“Clearly there is a period of high vulnerability in the first two weeks after release,” Binswanger said.
The study followed 30,200 inmates released from Washington state prisons for just under two years. Compared with people of similar age and race in the general population, ex-prisoners were 3.5 times more likely to die over those two years.
“The differences are more striking for women then they are for men,” said Binswanger, a public health researcher at the CU’s health sciences center. She did the study while on a fellowship in Washington.
While 87 percent of ex-prisoners in the study were men, the risk of death was 5 1/2 times higher for women released from prison than for other women.
The study did not differentiate between crimes committed or the length of time the inmates spent in prison.
Binswanger said the findings indicate that inmates about to be released might benefit from education about the risks of resuming drug use, or from drug treatment after release.
Staff writer Karen Auge can be reached at (303) 954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
