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Many studies have shown higher mortality among recently released prisoners than among the general population. To evaluate cause-specific mortality, researchers cross-matched data on more than 76,000 prisoners released from Washington state prisons between 1999 and 2009 with data from the National Death Index.
During mean post-release follow-up of 4.4 years, 2462 prisoners died (median time to death after release, 1.7 years). All-cause mortality (737 per 100,000 person-years) was 3.6 times higher than among the general population. The most common cause of death was unintentional overdose (167 per 100,000 person-years). Opioids were involved in 59% of overdose deaths; specifically, pharmaceutical opioids were involved in 41% of overdose deaths…