Is Prison Better for Black Men's Health?

Article here. A federal office dedicated to men's health is long overdue. Excerpt:

'Public health researchers from Vanderbilt University studied death patterns among prisoners and found that Black men in prison die at much lower rates than Black men who are not in prison.

In the American Journal of Epidemiology, the authors wrote:

"Based on the relatively poor health of incarcerated populations and the high mortality rates seen after release, one might predict that inmates would also suffer from high mortality while incarcerated. A recent Bureau of Justice Statistics report, however, showed that while incarcerated, inmates aged 15–64 years experience 19 percent lower mortality than comparably aged controls in the general population; among Blacks, mortality for prisoners is 43 percent lower than age-adjusted mortality for the general Black population."

Forty-three percent is shocking and somewhat ridiculous. What about prison—a place where 850,000 Black men and women million [sic] Black men are housed—is "better" for Black men's lives?

Well the no-duh answer is that health care for Black men in this country is so horrible and so scarce that too many Black men go undiagnosed with their ailments and are not on needed treatment. It seems like the only place where many Black men are accessing health care is when they are locked up.'