More than 850,000 black men and women are currently incarcerated in federal or state prisons, or in local jails throughout the U.S. The conditions of confinement have caused deep wounds for African-Americans, compromising the healthy development of communities and causing collateral damages such as severed family relationships, decreased parental responsibility over children, loss of employability and wages, housing and employment discrimination, and disenfranchisement, among others.
Still, despite the numerous negative effects that have been associated with incarceration, could prison also be associated with a positive life outcome for black men?
A research study published by Vanderbilt University sociologist Evelyn Patterson in 2010 shows state prisons are having a positive effect on the mortality rates of black men. Her study estimates the rates of working-age prisoners and non-prisoners by gender and race, and finds that while prison has a “detrimental health impact on most groups,” incarcerated black males at every age experience death rates that are lower than for black males outside of prison.
Between 1996 and 1998, black men not in prison lost almost twice as many years of life between the ages of 18 and 65 as incarcerated black men. In contrast, there was only a slight difference in the mortality rates of incarcerated white men when compared to their non-incarcerated white counterparts.
The study finds that while female prisoners lost 76 percent more years of life than women in the general population, the same is not true for black men, even when researchers control for deaths related to handguns and car accidents, factors that uniquely contribute to the deaths of non-incarcerated populations.
While the disparity can be partially explained by the fact that in prison, black men have access to immediate health care and nutrition if they are in need of medical care, the mortality rates for black men in the general society remain alarming.
“By no means is it true that health care in prison is even up to minimal standards. Across the country, states are facing lawsuits because of prison-related health care crises,” said Dr. Barry Krisberg, Director of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at UC Berkeley Law School. “This is really an indictment of the type of care available to African-American males in the community. They’re reflecting the condition and quality of health care that is available at the intersection between poverty and race.”
The illusion that prison can fix our health policy crisis is spreading. Last week, James Verone (who happens to be white) robbed a bank in North Carolina of one dollar just so that he could have access to health care. Of course, he probably should have thought that through, as the offense was too minor to likely result in a prison sentence. Still, he made his point.
