Report: State Prisoners Live Longer Than Public

WASHINGTON — State prison inmates are more likely to live longer than U.S. residents that are not incarcerated, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics report.

Prison officials reported in a BJS study that 12,129 state inmates died while in custody from 2001 to 2004, which constituted an annual mortality rate of 250 deaths per 100,000 inmates. That rate is 19 percent lower than the mortality rate in the U.S. general population, according to the BJS.

Medical conditions were the cause of 89 percent of all inmate deaths and 8 percent of deaths were due to suicide or homicide. Alcohol/drug intoxication and accidental injury each caused 1 percent of deaths, and the cause of death for 1 percent of the inmates could not be determined.

Half of all inmate deaths were from heart disease (27 percent) or cancer (23 percent). Liver, colon, pancreatic and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancers had the highest death rates. Liver diseases accounted for 10 percent of deaths and AIDS-related illnesses caused 7 percent of deaths.

The inmate mortality rate increased steadily with age. Inmates age 18 to 24 had a mortality rate of 34 deaths per 100,000 inmates. Inmates 55 or older had a rate of 1,973 deaths per 100,000 inmates.

Caucasian and Hispanic inmate mortality rates were slightly above the general population, while black inmates had a mortality rate 57 percent lower than black U.S. residents.

The states with the highest mortality rate per 100,000 inmates were Louisiana (388), Tennessee (344), Pennsylvania (328), West Virginia (326) and Kentucky (323).