Study: Black Men Live Longer If Incarcerated

Now here is a remarkably depressing study. According to a study published in the Annals of Epidemiology, black men are half as likely to die when they’re in prison than if they are free in society. According to the study of North Carolina inmates, they lived longer if they were incarcerated.

Part of the reason was the reduction in alcohol- and drug-related deaths as well as lethal accidents and certain chronic diseases. By the way, white men were only slightly more likely to live longer when not incarcerated.

One obvious reason is the availability of free health care.

What I find fascinating about this study is the countervailing issue of rapid aging in prison. It is well known that prisoners tend to be physiologically older than their chronological age. Thus, the true number of physiologically geriatric prisoners is higher than records will often indicate. As we work with prisons through the Project for Older Prisoners (POPS), we often find that the per capita expense of prisoners is higher than projected due to this fact. This does not necessarily contradict the North Carolina study, however. Much of that advanced aging is due to prior alcohol and drug abuse. Yet, the stress of prison also is known to accelerate the aging progress. That seems true in this study for whites, but was less apparent for the black population. It is an interesting study for that reason.

The study is entitled “All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among Black and White North Carolina State Prisoners, 1995–2005” 08 July 2011 by David L. Rosen, David A. Wohl, Victor J. Schoenbach (Annals of Epidemiology)

Source: Reuters

Jonathan Turley

27 thoughts on “Study: Black Men Live Longer If Incarcerated”

  1. I HAVE TO SAY THIS,,,,,i figured the demise and agement(is that a woid?) was due to heavy drinking! not drugs! but see i dont know much!

  2. Jude, last line of the fauxnews article: “Meanwhile, most experts have pondered how Bachmann’s proposed policy would differ from current US policy.”

    Good link.

  3. Gene H.,

    The whole thing stinks to high heaven and makes me incredibly sad.

    We made some progress back in the ’60’s and had hopes for so much more. The effort certainly wasn’t wasted but the bastards caught on and then caught up … I can feel my blood pressure rising as I type …

  4. Who needs an obvious reason for decreased mortality rates like free health care when you can make a racially based specious argument instead?

  5. You have to factor for murder and street shootings, etc. All unnatural deaths….. Take this out of the equation and I am sure there is no correlation.

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