People in prisons and jails are disproportionately likely to have chronic health problems including diabetes, high blood pressure, and HIV, as well as substance use and mental health problems. Nevertheless, correctional healthcare is low-quality and difficult to access. It’s also expensive: Astonishingly, most prisons charge incarcerated people a copay for doctor visits.
The downstream effects — for both incarcerated people and the general public — have been disastrous: Mass incarceration has shortened the overall U.S. life expectancy by 5 years.
Below is our key research into the public health effects of incarceration:
Key statistics:
Percentage of state and federal prisons located within 3 miles of a Superfund site: 32% 1
Percentage of people in state prisons who were uninsured before their most recent arrest: 50%2
Percentage of people in state prisons who have a disability: 40%3
… of women in state prisons who have a disability: 50%4
Percentage of people in state prisons who have ever been diagnosed with a mental illness: 43%5
In correctional healthcare systems, care is secondary to controlling costs and avoiding lawsuits — a problem plaguing both private and public healthcare delivery. What will it take to get people the care they need?
We break down the most recent national data on incarcerated people’s health, showing how prisons are neglecting the health problems of many in their care.
Find our three major reports on COVID-19 in prisons and jails, as well as a list of policy recommendations, an explainer on social distancing behind bars, a powerful fact sheet, and much more. We also tracked where pandemic-related policy changes took place.
At least 4.9 million people go to county and city jails each year, our national analysis shows. We find that people who go to jail - particularly those who go more than once a year - are more likely to have preexisting health problems.
New study: Kids who need treatment for opioid use disorder rarely get it, by Brian Nam-Sonenstein, January 22, 2026 A new nationwide study published in Health Affairs finds that adolescents aged 12 to 17 struggle to access and remain engaged in treatment, often because they are not offered youth-tailored treatment and gold-standard opioid use disorder medications.
Menstruation as misconduct: How prisons punish people for having their periods, by Miriam Vishniac and Emily Widra, November 12, 2025 Our analysis of prison rules and sanctions across all fifty states and the federal system -- as well as accounts of incarcerated people -- reveal troubling trends in how the carceral system punishes people for a physiological process they have no control over.
Birth behind bars: Ten years of U.S. jail births covered in the news highlight horrific experiences and minimal data collection, by Leah Wang and Bianca Schindeler, July 1, 2025 For some of the thousands of pregnant people entering jails each year, at what might be their moment of greatest need -- going into labor -- jails turn a blind eye, harming mothers, newborns, and their families. The latest project from our partners at Advocacy and Research on Reproductive Wellness of Incarcerated People, or ARRWIP, illuminates these haunting stories and the dire need for data and education about pregnancy in jails.
New research links medical copays to reduced healthcare access in prisons, by Emily Widra, August 29, 2024 Using our prior research on prison wages and medical copays, researchers found that higher copays obstruct access to necessary healthcare behind bars, even as prison populations face increasing rates of physical and mental health conditions.
Addicted to punishment: Jails and prisons punish drug use far more than they treat it, by Emily Widra, January 30, 2024 Despite the common refrain that jails and prisons are "de facto treatment facilities," most prioritize punitive mail scanning policies and strict visitation rules that fail to prevent drugs from entering facilities while providing little to no access to treatment and healthcare.
The aging prison population: Causes, costs, and consequences by Emily Widra, August 2, 2023 New Census Bureau data show the U.S. population is getting older — and at the same time, our prison populations are aging even faster. In this briefing, we examine the inhumane, costly, and counterproductive practice of locking up older adults.
Heat, floods, pests, disease, and death: What climate change means for people in prison, by Leah Wang, July 19, 2023 Without consistent access to relief or safer environments, incarcerated people are punished with deadly heat, increased biological threats, and flimsy emergency protocols. We explain new epidemiological evidence confirming that heat and death are linked in prisons nationwide, and explain why the climate-change-induced plight of people in prisons deserves swift action.
Mortality, health, and poverty: the unmet needs of people on probation and parole, by Emily Widra and Alexi Jones, April 3, 2023 Unique survey data reveal that people under community supervision have high rates of substance use and mental health disorders and extremely limited access to healthcare, likely contributing to the high rates of mortality.
How a Medicare rule that ends financial burdens for the incarcerated leaves some behind, by Emily Widra, January 3, 2023 Medicare expands enrollment periods for people released from prison after January 1, 2023, but offers no relief for people who have been paying premiums for zero Medicare benefits while incarcerated, nor for those released before 2023 who signed up late and are stuck paying jacked-up premiums for the rest of their life.
“Working in “a meat grinder” — A research roundup showing prison and jail jobs aren’t all that states promise they will be.
Prisons are a daily environmental injustice — by Leah Wang, April 20, 2022 This country’s toxic combination of environmental destruction and mass incarceration is forcing hundreds of thousands of people to live near Superfund sites and other wastelands, with deadly health effects.
New data: State prisons are increasingly deadly places, by Leah Wang and Wendy Sawyer, June 8, 2021 New data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that state prisons are seeing alarming rises in suicide, homicide, and drug and alcohol-related deaths.
New BJS report reveals staggering number of preventable deaths in local jails, by Alexi Jones, February 13, 2020 In 2016, over 1,000 people died in local jails - many the tragic result of healthcare and jail systems that fail to address serious health problems among the jail population, and of the trauma of incarceration itself.
Food for thought: Prison food is a public health problem by Wendy Sawyer, March 3, 2017 We connect the dots between prison food, nutrition, and public health. The takeaway? Prison food is not just gross; it is often nutritionally inadequate.
Incarceration shortens life expectancy by Emily Widra, June 26, 2017 Each year in prison takes 2 years off an individual’s life expectancy. With over 2.3 million people locked up, mass incarceration has shortened the overall U.S. life expectancy by 5 years.
The life-threatening reality of short jail stays by Bernadette Rabuy, December 22, 2016 New BJS data shows suicide is still the leading cause of death in local jails. And most suicides occur shortly after jail admission.
Tens of millions of people are dealing with the “collateral consequences” of punishment: effects such as homelessness that last long after someone has served their sentence. These harms also impact public health.
Visits and phone calls mitigate the harmful effects of prolonged isolation behind bars. But jails and prisons make staying in touch difficult, particularly for poor families.
Research Library
Didn’t find what you were looking for? We also curate a database of virtually all the empirical criminal justice research available online. See the sections of our Research Library on public health, mental health, and conditions of confinement.
Footnotes
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a Superfund site is an area that is contaminated “due to hazardous waste being dumped, left out in the open, or otherwise improperly managed. These sites include manufacturing facilities, processing plants, landfills and mining sites.”
For more information on how environmental hazards affect incarcerated people and those who live and work nearby, see our 2022 briefing, Prisons are a daily environmental injustice.
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Suicide is the leading cause of death in local jails, outpacing heart disease, drug and alcohol intoxication, and all other causes, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ Mortality in Local Jails, 2000-2019 — Statistical Tables, Table 2.
In 2019, 87% of deaths in state prisons and 89% of deaths in federal prisons were attributed to illnesses, including heart disease, cancer, and liver disease, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ Mortality in State and Federal Prisons, 2001-2019 - Statistical Tables, Table 1.
Data provided by the UCLA Law COVID Behind Bars Data Project as of January, 2023. Numbers are likely an undercount due to variations in testing and reporting practices across agencies. ↩
Data provided by the UCLA Law COVID Behind Bars Data Project as of January, 2023. Numbers are likely an undercount due to variations in testing and reporting practices across agencies. ↩
Chronic Punishment: The unmet health needs of people in state prisons
Chronic Punishment: The unmet health needs of people in state prisons
Our COVID-19 resources
Our COVID-19 resources
Arrest, Release, Repeat: How police and jails are misused to respond to social problems
Arrest, Release, Repeat: How police and jails are misused to respond to social problems
Drug policy
Drug policy
Collateral consequences
Collateral consequences
Communication and contact
Communication and contact
