An exclusive investigation has revealed that people incarcerated in state prison in New Jersey are dying years younger than the overall population, often after receiving little healthcare when they get sick. Advocates believe that alarmingly premature death in state prisons is a hidden crisis that is routine across the US, all too often fueled by abysmal and unconstitutional standards of healthcare.
From 2018 to 2022, men in New Jersey prisons died at an average age of 59 years and two months of age, and among those, Black men died at just under 57 years and four months of age. The incarcerated population is on average younger than the general population, yet these numbers are still startlingly low compared with the overall state average age of death recorded by the New Jersey health authorities of 71 years and eight months for all men and 64 years and four months for the state’s Black men.
By filing public records requests, the Guardian obtained data on all 272 individuals whom the DOC reported had died in New Jersey state prisons from 2018 to 2022, as well as autopsy results on 265 of those people. Heart disease accounted for 69 of the deaths, making it the leading cause, with people dying from the condition at age 62 on average. The next two most common causes of death were Covid-19 (average age of death: 60) and cancer (59).
The Guardian found that incarcerated men in state prisons lost about 6.5 more years of potential life on average compared to men in the state population overall. And they lost an average of 1.9 more years of potential life compared to male residents of New Jersey’s poorest cities, including Camden, Passaic, Newark, Paterson and Atlantic City. The numbers suggest that neither age distribution nor socioeconomic background and race completely explain why men in New Jersey prisons are dying so young, leaving the finger pointing at standards of healthcare in state prisons.
By reviewing the autopsies as well as medical records, the Guardian concluded that some individuals, died of treatable cancers, while others died of potentially treatable manifestations of chronic illnesses and potential complications of neglect.