Title: How often do prisoners die behind bars? - The Washington Post
Headings: How often do prisoners die behind bars?
How often do prisoners die behind bars?
Related:

Content: In Texas, the screening process has come under fire as officials released documents with contradictory answers to the question of whether Bland had attempted suicide before, confusion that a Waller County assistant district attorney said likely explained the decision not to place her on suicide watch. The World Health Organization says that communication among different staff members is crucial, adding that additional screening and observation are also necessary. Advertisement
[ Report: While in jail, Bland left a voicemail saying she was at “a loss for words"]
Beyond suicide, thousands of people are dying behind bars each year, as the prison population has exploded over the last few decades. Story continues below advertisement
There are about 2.2 million people incarcerated in jails and prisons, a number that is more than four times the population in 1980 . Harsh sentences in the 1980s and 1990s helped foster a situation where an increasingly large number of inmates are older than 50, and state health-care spending on inmates has skyrocketed. The federal prison population has similarly climbed. In state prisons, a little more than half of inmates were sentenced for violent crimes; one in five is there for property crimes like burglary, while about one in six is being held for drug crimes. All told, one of every 108 adults in the United States was incarcerated in a prison or jail in 2012, according to the Justice Department.