Understanding drug-related mortality in released prisoners: a review of national coronial records.

Background: The prisoner population is characterised by a high burden of disease and social disadvantage, and ex-prisoners are at increased risk of death following release. Much of the excess mortality can be attributed to an increased risk of unnatural death, particularly from drug overdose; however, relatively few studies have investigated the circumstances surrounding drug-related deaths among released prisoners. This study aimed to explore and compare the circumstances of death for those who died from accidental drug-related causes to those who died from all other reportable causes.

Sensitivity of a national coronial database for monitoring unnatural deaths among ex-prisoners in Australia.

Background: The period immediately after release from custody is a time of marked vulnerability and increased risk of death for ex-prisoners. Despite this, there is currently no routine, national system for monitoring ex-prisoner mortality in Australia. This study subsequently aimed to evaluate the sensitivity of Australia's National Coroners Information System (NCIS) for identifying reportable deaths among prisoners and ex-prisoners.

Counting the cost: estimating the number of deaths among recently released prisoners in Australia.

Objective: To estimate the number of deaths among people released from prison in Australia in the 2007-08 financial year, within 4 weeks and 1 year of release.

Design, Participants And Setting: Application of crude mortality rates for ex-prisoners (obtained from two independent, state-based record-linkage studies [New South Wales and Western Australia]) to a national estimate of the number and characteristics of people released from prison in 2007-08.

Main Outcome Measures: Estimated number of deaths among adults released from Australian prisons in 2007-08, within 4 weeks and 1 year of release, classified by age, sex, Indigenous status and cause of death.