The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a dramatic increase in deaths among jailed Americans, a new study in Science Advances shows, with deaths among prisoners 3.4 times greater than in the general population in 2020.
Overall, total mortality increased 77% in 2020 relative to 2019, the authors said.
Though the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported 2,490 deaths attributable to COVID-19 (suspected or confirmed as a cause of death) from March 2020 to February 2021 across 49 states, that rate of 1.5 deaths per 1,000 prisoners does not take into account how and if the pandemic resulted in excess mortality in prisons.
The authors of the study argued that excess mortality is a better measure of the pandemic’s impact on mortality.
Deaths from unnatural causes climbed
"Prisons imposed policies attempting to mitigate infection—such as lockdowns and restricted movements, programming suspensions, visitor prohibitions, limited communication with loved ones, and solitary confinement in lieu of medical isolation—all of which increased stress, mental health challenges, and violence exacerbating the risk of deaths due to unnatural causes, such as drug overdoses, suicide, and violence," they wrote.
Using public records and data from state departments of corrections, the authors estimated excess total mortality for 2020 compared to 2019 and prior years, an information gathering process that took more than 2 years.
Compared to existing work focusing on specific states or types of deaths, this research provides a much more comprehensive nationwide understanding of the full extent of deaths in U.S. prisons.
"Compared to existing work focusing on specific states or types of deaths, this research provides a much more comprehensive nationwide understanding of the full extent of deaths in U.S. prisons during the pandemic's onset," said first author Naomi Sugie, PhD, in a press release from the University of California-Irvine.
"It also shows that some Departments of Corrections agencies were quite successful at limiting excess deaths while others experienced very high mortality increases, including deaths for both natural and unnatural causes."
Deaths doubled in some states
Excess mortality rates differed greatly by state, the authors found, with Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Utah, and West Virginia experiencing a doubling, or more, of their mortality rate in 2020 compared to 2019.
By comparison, Maryland, New York, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Washington, DC, had very small differences in mortality rates from 2019 to 2020.
Excess mortality was seen across all ages of prisoners, however. In 11 states with data on prisoners 49 and under, the risk ratio (RR) for excess mortality in 2020 compared to
