An empirical study by Evelyn Patterson, Vanderbilt sociology faculty, discovered that prison shaves the life off people–even when they are released.  There is a  15.6 % increase “in the odds of death for parolees compared to people who had never been to prison, which translates to a two-year decline in life expectancy for every year served inside prison.”  The statistic can be overcome if the person is not re-incarcerated.  “The difficulty of getting proper health care in the months immediately after prison is a particular problem,” Patterson said. “Many times an inmate with an illness is discharged from prison with a 30-day supply of medication and little chance of connecting with a new health care provider.”

http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2013/02/prison-sentence-take-release/