Total Health Burden of Incarceration for Older African American Adults

• In Event: Health Effects of the Criminal Legal System

Abstract

Previous research showcases the link between incarceration and poor health outcomes, mental and physical. Most of this work focuses exclusively on individuals in early adulthood. Further, research has only begun to explore how incarceration influences biological aging processes. The question remains as to how incarceration exposure effects the physical and mental health of older Black adults who were coming of age during the height of the prison boom. The present study examines the health burden of incarceration among older Black adults. Using dating from a longitudinal sample of 376 older African Americans in the Family and Community Health Study, we use indices of epigenetic aging and depression to examine the health consequences of incarceration. We conducted OLS regressions with controls to account for adverse life experiences and health risk behaviors. Models that adjust for selection into incarceration suggest that incarceration is a stressor that shapes an individual’s pace of aging, leaving formerly incarcerated individuals biologically older and aging at an accelerated pace than others at the same chronological age. Further, incarceration is associated with an increased risk for depressive symptoms. These findings further position incarceration as a unique stressor that degrades the physical and mental health of older Black adults.

Authors

• Kendall Riley, University of Iowa

• Mark T. Berg, University of Iowa

• Man Kit Lei, University of Georgia

• Ronald L. Simons, University of Georgia