Constant population churn in and out of carceral settings and enduring discrimination on the basis of criminal legal involvement only entrenches this cycle of violence and incarceration. Interrupting this cycle through anti-racist social policy including decarceration is urgently needed.

The disparities we observed in homicide mortality result from a complex, cyclical network of structural racism and colonialism that has marginalized Black and Native people, made them vulnerable to violent victimization, and used that vulnerability to justify explosion of the carceral state.

We examined what was available in terms of Violent Death Reporting System information, but couldn't identify a clear reason for these increases in immediate-term post-release homicide deaths. I think this is worth investigating further.

Across the entire study period, 2- and 4-week post-release homicide deaths were nearly exclusively among Black people, and all of these after 2013 were among Black people. Post-release homicide mortality among white people, in constrast, isn't elevated until 6+ months after release.

From 2000 to 2013, we saw that the 2- and 4-week post-release periods had relatively lower homicide mortality (SMR ~ 4) compared to later periods (SMR ~ 8). After 2013, we observed stark increases in homicide deaths immediately after release. In 2018, the 2-week SMR was 21.8.

In general, people who have been incarcerated in prison die of homicide at 8 times the rate of their general population peers, and rates are extreme among minoritized men. Formerly incarcerated Black & Native men have homicide mortality rates more than 145/100k PY, versus 56/100k PY among White men.

This is also extremely racialized. A full 25% of Black adults under age 70 who die of homicide in NC have a prison incarceration history and 75% of all 3-year post-release homicide deaths are among Black people.

People who die of homicide in NC are disproportionately formerly incarcerated. 17.6% of adults aged 18-69 who died of homicide in NC between 2000 and 2020 were formerly incarcerated, but only 1.3% of adults who died of other causes were formerly incarcerated.

like it would be that big of a deal if they weren’t so MAD when you do it wrong and it’s like well it was a totally different process on my way in so idk what to tell you

a little bit, which I enjoyed a lot

oh wow, thank you so so much. I’m so happy that so many people resonated with it

Thanks for stopping by!

they simply took all the time in the whole world, lots of energy drink sipping, some luxuriating in the truck box, handling my 30 lb dining table so gently with four hands