By Dea Taielli
@redlineproject
The United States has a far larger incarcerated population than any other country in the world, with nearly 500,000 people serving time, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.
Criminologists are not only interested in understanding why this industrial complex has grown to such a scale in the U.S., but also in examining the overall lives of incarcerated individuals while removed from society. The data is shocking, as it reveals thousands of deaths in the past decade.
According to data released by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, there were 8,242 inmate deaths in the United States from 2005 to 2024. A breakdown of the causes of these deaths suggests that there may be a lack of adequate healthcare access for incarcerated individuals.
Four of the five leading causes are chronic conditions: cancer leads the chart with 2,136 deaths, followed by cardiac arrest with 2,045 deaths. Other top causes include pulmonary and liver disease, accounting for 916 and 611 deaths, respectively. Suicide was the fifth most common cause, with 363 deaths between 2005 and 2024.
Examining the data by year also reveals a significant spike in deaths in 2020, which is unsurprising given the COVID-19 pandemic and associated surges in cases. While current data shows a downward trend since 2020, these figures underscore the urgent need for improved healthcare access for incarcerated populations.
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