A Melbourne academic is calling for more support for young people released from jail with research showing they face a significantly increased risk of death.
Young women released from prison have a risk of death 20 times the rate of the wider community, according to the research.
For young men, the rate is six times the norm.
All people who leave prison are four times more likely to die than the general population, the study found.
University of Melbourne associate professor Stuart Kinner and Dr Kate van Dooren from the University of Queensland studied about 42,000 records of people released from Queensland prisons between 1994 and 2007.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
They followed them for up to 14 years and identified deaths on the National Death Index.
"Release from prison is associated with a large increase in risk of death, and this increase is greatest for young people," assoc prof Kinner said.
Among the young people who died, nearly all were from preventable drug-related causes or suicide, he said.
"These tragic and preventable deaths clearly show that we can do a lot more to support this transitional process," prof Kinner said.
