Recent release from prison is a significant risk factor suicide
Last reviewed: 14.06.2024
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Prisoners released from prison are nine times more likely to commit suicide over the next year compared to people who have never been incarcerated, new research shows.
"Suicide prevention efforts should focus on people who spent at least one night in jail in the past year," concluded the team led by Ted Miller, a senior fellow at the Institute for Research and Evaluation in Beltsville, Maryland.
For the study, researchers combined data from 10 different studies of mortality rates among previously incarcerated adults. They used this data to estimate the suicide rate among the nearly 7.1 million adults who were released from prison at least once in 2019.
Researchers found that former prisoners had a nine times greater risk of death by suicide within one year of release and a seven times greater risk of death by suicide within two years of release. People recently released from prison account for approximately 20% of all adult suicides, despite making up only about 3% of the total adult population.
Researchers have noted that adults are often arrested during a mental health crisis.
It is now possible for health systems to link prison release data with patient medical records, allowing efforts to be targeted to patients who have recently been released, the researchers noted.
"Focused suicide prevention efforts could reach a significant number of formerly incarcerated adults during the two years when the likelihood of death by suicide is highest," the researchers concluded in a press release from the American Psychiatric Association.
The results of the work are described in detail in an article published in the JAMA Network Open.