evidence: Former inmates at high risk for opioid overdose following prison release A recent study in North Carolina found that, in the first two weeks after being released from prison, former inmates were 40 times more likely to die of an opioid overdose than someone in the general population. When restricted to heroin overdoses only, formerly incarcerated individuals’ likelihood of overdose death increased to 74 times the norm within the first two weeks after release. Even an entire year after release, overdose death rates remained 10-18 times higher among formerly incarcerated individuals as compared to the general N.C. population.