TY - JOUR
T1 - Years of life lost to prison
T2 - Racial and gender gradients in the United States of America
AU - Hogg, Robert S.
AU - Druyts, Eric F.
AU - Burris, Scott
AU - Drucker, Ernest
AU - Strathdee, Steffanie A.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge the support from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research through a Senior Scholar Award to Dr. Hogg. Dr. Strath-dee is supported through the foundation for the Harold Simon Chair, as well as grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA12568, DA14499 and DA09225). We would like to thank Justin Barer, Anna McGuire, and Patricia Kretz for their research assistance.
PY - 2008/1/25
Y1 - 2008/1/25
N2 - Background: The United States has the highest rate of imprisonment of any country in the world. African Americans and Hispanics comprise a disproportionately large share of the prison population. We applied a "prison life expectancy" to specify differences in exposure to imprisonment by gender and race at the population level. Methods: The impact of imprisonment on life expectancy in the United States was measured for each year from 2000 to 2004, and then averaged. Using the Sullivan method, prison and prison-free life expectancies were estimated by dividing the years lived in each age range of the life table into these two states using prevalence of imprisonment by gender and race. Results: African American males can expect to spend on average 3.09 years in prison or jail over their lifetime and Hispanic and Caucasian males can spend on average 1.06 and 0.50 years, respectively. African American females, on the other hand, can expect to spend on average 0.23 years in these institutions and Hispanic and Caucasian females can expect to spend on average 0.09 and 0.05 years, respectively. Overall, African American males, the highest risk group, can expect to spend on average 61.80 times longer in prison or jail as compared to Caucasian women, the lowest risk group. Conclusion: There are clear gender and racial gradients in life expectancy spent in prison in the United States. Future research needs to examine how current imprisonment practice in the United States may influence population health and health disparities.
AB - Background: The United States has the highest rate of imprisonment of any country in the world. African Americans and Hispanics comprise a disproportionately large share of the prison population. We applied a "prison life expectancy" to specify differences in exposure to imprisonment by gender and race at the population level. Methods: The impact of imprisonment on life expectancy in the United States was measured for each year from 2000 to 2004, and then averaged. Using the Sullivan method, prison and prison-free life expectancies were estimated by dividing the years lived in each age range of the life table into these two states using prevalence of imprisonment by gender and race. Results: African American males can expect to spend on average 3.09 years in prison or jail over their lifetime and Hispanic and Caucasian males can spend on average 1.06 and 0.50 years, respectively. African American females, on the other hand, can expect to spend on average 0.23 years in these institutions and Hispanic and Caucasian females can expect to spend on average 0.09 and 0.05 years, respectively. Overall, African American males, the highest risk group, can expect to spend on average 61.80 times longer in prison or jail as compared to Caucasian women, the lowest risk group. Conclusion: There are clear gender and racial gradients in life expectancy spent in prison in the United States. Future research needs to examine how current imprisonment practice in the United States may influence population health and health disparities.
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U2 - 10.1186/1477-7517-5-4
DO - 10.1186/1477-7517-5-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 18221538
AN - SCOPUS:40649083095
SN - 1477-7517
VL - 5
JO - Harm reduction journal
JF - Harm reduction journal
M1 - 4
ER -