title: Counting the cost: estimating the number of deaths among recently released prisoners in Australia.
abstract: 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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
  
  
  RESULTS
  It was estimated that among people released from prison in 2007-08, between 449 (95% CI, 380-527) and 472 (95% CI, 438-507) died within 1 year of release. Of these, between 68 (95% CI, 56-82) and 138 (95% CI, 101-183) died within 4 weeks of release. Most of these deaths were not drug-related.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The estimated annual number of deaths among recently released prisoners in Australia is considerably greater than the annual number of deaths in custody, highlighting the extreme vulnerability of this population on return to the community. There is an urgent need to establish a national system for routine monitoring of ex-prisoner mortality and to continue the duty of care beyond the prison walls.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. kinner@burnet.edu.au
authors.forename: Stuart A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kinner
authors.forename: David B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Preen
authors.forename: Azar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kariminia
authors.forename: Tony
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.forename: Jessica Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Andrews
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stoové
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Law
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002423:Cause of Death; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality; D011329:Prisoners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult