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Prisoner Health

Prisoners' Health

Many prisoners experience significant challenges after their release from prison. These challenges may put ex-prisoners at a greater risk of suicide than the general population. However, we don’t know how many ex-prisoners die from suicide after they are released from prison. Nor do we understand if there are particular times after their release when ex-prisoners may be more susceptible to attempting suicide. The researchers found that the rate of suicide in adults released from prison is similar to the rate of drug-related deaths. In addition, there were more drug-related deaths in the first 1-2 weeks after release than any other time; this was not the case for suicide. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare linked Queensland corrective services data to the National Death Index for the research team to analyse.

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