Mortality is high in young offenders

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7398.0-a

BMJ 2003;326 (17 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7398.0-a

Mortality is high in young offenders

Young people in Australia who have received custodial sentenceshave high mortality from drug overdose, suicide, and unintentionalinjury. In a retrospective cohort study, Coffey and colleagues (p 1064) compared death rates in young offenders with thosein young people in the general population of the same state.They found that rates in young offenders were nine times higherin males and 40 times higher in females. A quarter of all drugrelated deaths in 15-19 year old men were of young offenders.The authors say that social policies to address drug and mentalhealth problems and social disadvantage in young offendersare urgently needed.