Forty per cent of deaths in the year after release from prison are linked to drugs, according to a report from the Nacro charity. The figures are based on analysis of Ministry of Justice (MoJ) statistics.
The number of post-release drug-related deaths has doubled in the last seven years, says Reducing deaths among prison leavers. Overall, between 2019 and 2025, almost 2,500 people died within a year of leaving prison, while a third of those dying within two weeks were homeless, the report adds.
Everyone released from prison with an opioid problem should be offered OST on the day of release, the charity urges, with one in three people identified as needing community drug services on release not accessing them. The risk of overdose is far greater among prison leavers, partly as a result of reduced tolerance levels. DHSC should work with HM Prison and Probation Service to make sure that everyone released is registered with a GP and able to access care immediately, it adds, while DHSC and the MoJ should work together to set a ‘consistent national standard’ for naloxone distribution for prison leavers.
The number of deaths on release is now significantly higher than before the COVID pandemic, the report points out. Someone leaving prison today is more than 70 per cent more likely to die within two weeks of release, and 28 per cent more likely to die within a year, than someone released in 2019-20.
The final report of chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor, earlier this month, said that the widespread availability of drugs represented a ‘grave threat’ to the prison system, with demand fuelled by ‘frustration, boredom and despair’ – as prisoners regularly spent 22 or more hours a day locked in their cells. ‘Too many’ people were also being released to no settled address, he added.
‘Almost 40 per cent of deaths within a year of release are drug-related, split roughly evenly between unintentional drug poisoning and self-inflicted drug poisoning – representing three deaths a week,’ the Nacro report states. While a third are due to natural causes, and a ‘small but significant’ number the result of homicide and suicide, this means that the ‘largest avoidable group of deaths post-release are drug-related. The number of people who have died after release from prison since 2019 is stark, particularly those who have died due to drug-related causes. We believe different parts of government should be working together to ensure that only truly unavoidable deaths occur in future.’
Report available here