To the Editor: Compared with the Australian population, all-cause mortality rates among prisoners are four times greater among men, and eight times greater among women.1 Fatal drug overdoses and suicides comprise the overwhelming majority of deaths in post-release cohorts;2 hence, a large proportion of post-release deaths are preventable. However, the information necessary to determine appropriate public health responses to the issue of post-release mortality is largely absent, because there is no routine nationwide collection of numbers of prison separation episodes as there is, for example, for prison receptions.3
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- 1. Kariminia A, Butler T, Corben S, et al. Extreme cause-specific mortality in a cohort of adult prisoners — 1988 to 2002: a data-linkage study. Int J Epidemiol 2007; 36: 310-316.
- 2. Kariminia A, Law MG, Butler TG, et al. Suicide risk among recently released prisoners in New South Wales, Australia. Med J Aust 2007; 187: 387-390. <MJA full text>
- 3. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Corrective Services, Australia, Mar 2009. (ABS Series 4512.0.) Canberra: ABS, 2008. http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs @.nsf/DetailsPage/4512.0Mar%202009?OpenDocument (accessed Aug 2009).
- 4. Dolan K, Shearer J, White B, et al. A four-year follow-up of imprisoned male heroin users and methadone treatment: mortality, re-incarceration and hepatitis C infection. Addiction 2005; 100: 820-828.
- 5. Wakeman SE, Bowman SE, McKenzie M, et al. Preventing death among the recently incarcerated: an argument for naloxone prescription before release. J Addict Dis 2009; 28: 124-129.
The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre receives core funding from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. We thank Associate Professor Eileen Baldry for her comments on an earlier version of this letter.