Counties with the highest jail incarceration rates experience markedly higher death rates from lung, liver, and colorectal cancers, with the burden falling most heavily on Black residents and men. An analysis linking decades of county incarceration data with national mortality records shows that incarceration functions as a structural force shaping who lives and who dies from cancer in the United States.
Researchers examined incarceration patterns from 1995 through 2018 and compared them with cancer mortality between 2000 and 2019. Counties in the highest incarceration quartile had 7% to 10% higher mortality from the three cancers than counties with the lowest rates, even after accounting for sociodemographic, behavioral, health care, and structural factors. These excess deaths were not evenly distributed across populations.
Black residents faced elevated lung and colorectal cancer mortality across all levels of incarceration exposure, highlighting persistent racial health disparities that extend beyond the highest-incarceration communities. The disparity widened further for liver cancer. In counties with the highest incarceration rates, liver cancer deaths among Black residents were nearly 30% higher than in counties with the lowest rates. By contrast, increased cancer mortality among White residents emerged only in the highest-incarceration counties, underscoring how incarceration amplifies existing inequities rather than creating them uniformly.
Sex-based differences were also pronounced. Men living in high-incarceration counties experienced a 13% increase in liver cancer mortality, reinforcing concerns about how incarceration-related disruptions to health care access, continuity of care, and community resources reverberate long after jail exposure.
The findings frame incarceration not merely as a criminal justice issue but as a population health determinant. Concentrated jail exposure appears to leave entire communities more vulnerable to preventable cancer deaths, particularly Black communities already facing entrenched barriers to prevention, screening, and timely treatment.
See: “Association of Jail Incarceration With Lung, Liver, and Colorectal Cancer Mortality Across US Counties” (December 9, 2025)
