At any given time, black men are half as likely to die if they are in prison than if they are not.

This is according to a recent study involving 100,000 men who were held in North Carolina prisons between 1995 and 2005, 60 percent of which were black men. This pattern of death does not hold for white prisoners, who were actually slightly more likely to die IN prison. However, there was no racial difference when it came to the number of inmates who died in prison - this difference was only found in the comparison to non-inmates of the same race. The results showed that prisons typically protected black inmates against alcohol and drug-related deaths as well as lethal accidents.

Imprisoned blacks were 30 to 40 percent less likely to die of cancer or cardiovascular diseases than their free counterparts. They were also found to be less likely to die of diabetes, airway diseases, accidents, suicide or murder. The lessening of violent deaths among these people is intuitive enough, but what is truly sad is the reduced likelihood of health problems. This is due to the fact that prison-based medical care is often far more comprehensive for disadvantaged black people in prison than it is outside of it. Many times, prisons serve as the ONLY viable source of medical care for these impoverished individuals!
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