Reducing deaths among prison leavers

Our report ‘Reducing Deaths Among Prison Leavers’ finds than one person dies every day in the year after leaving prison. Someone leaving prison now is more likely to die within three months of release than a person aged under 75 is over the course of an entire year. 

The report recommends that more should be done to reduce the risk of people dying after release from prison, estimating that up to one in seven drug-related deaths could be avoided if everyone with a history of opioid dependence received drug substitution therapy on the day they left prison.

The number of deaths after release is significantly higher than before the pandemic. While rates peaked during the Covid-19 period, they have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Compared with people released in 2019/20, someone leaving prison today is 72% more likely to die within two weeks of release and 28% more likely to die within a year.

Drug-related deaths are the largest cause of preventable deaths among prison leavers, accounting for 40% of deaths within the year after release — around three people every week.

Key statistics:

• More than one person died every day in the year after leaving prison (2019-2025).
• 2,447 people died within a year of leaving prison (2019-2025).
• 40% of deaths in the year post-release are linked to drugs (2025).
• Since 2019, the number of post-release drug related deaths has doubled.
• A third of people who die within two weeks of release were homeless (2024).
• One in three people identified as needing community substance misuse services on release do not access them (2026).

Our key recommendations:

1. Opioid treatment: All people released from prison with an opioid misuse problem should be offered OST on their day of release.
2. Naloxone: The Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health and Social Care should set and meet a consistent national standard for the distribution of naloxone on release.
3. Access to healthcare: The Department of Health and Social Care should work with the Prisons and Probation Service to ensure that everyone released from prison is registered with a GP and able to access immediate care.
4. Prison-leaver homelessness: The Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government should set out a joint plan to meet their target of halving the proportion of people leaving prison homeless.

About Nacro

We deliver services across the criminal justice system, including personal wellbeing services and accommodation advice and support for people under probation supervision, the national Community Accommodation Service Tier 2 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, housing prison leavers on Home Detention Curfew and those bailed from court in need of an address.

We also provide substance misuse services for both people leaving prison and others across the country, including in Yorkshire and the Humber, and the West Midlands. Throughout this report, we have drawn on the experience and expertise of these services.

Find out more about our services