{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,3]],"date-time":"2026-01-03T15:19:46Z","timestamp":1767453586702,"version":"3.37.3"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,28]],"date-time":"2023-04-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1682640000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000071","name":"National Institute of Child Health and Human Development","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["1DP2HD080350-01"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["1DP2HD080350-01"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000071","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Chan Zuckerberg Biohub"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In 2011, a historic Supreme Court decision mandated that the state of California substantially reduce its prison population to alleviate overcrowding, which was deemed so severe as to preclude the provision of adequate healthcare. To comply, California passed the Public Safety Realignment Act (Assembly Bill [AB] 109), representing the largest ever court-ordered reduction of a prison population in U.S. history. AB109 was successful in reducing the state prison population; however, although the policy was precipitated by inadequate healthcare in state prisons, no studies have examined its effects on prisoner health. As other states grapple with overcrowded prisons and look to California\u2019s experience with this landmark policy, understanding how it may have impacted prisoner health is critical. We sought to evaluate the effects of AB109 on prison mortality and assess the extent to which policy-induced changes in the age distribution of prisoners may have contributed to these effects. To do so, we used prison mortality data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the California Deaths in Custody reporting program and prison population data from the National Corrections Reporting Program to examine changes in overall prison mortality, the age distribution of prisoners, and age-adjusted prison mortality in California relative to other states before and after the implementation of AB109. Following AB109, California prisons experienced an increase in overall mortality relative to other states that attenuated within three years. Over the same period, California experienced a greater upward shift in the age distribution of its prisoners relative to other states, suggesting that the state\u2019s increase in overall mortality may have been driven by this change in age distribution. Indeed, when accounting for this differential change in age distribution, mortality among California prisoners exhibited a greater reduction relative to other states in the third year after implementation. As other states seek to reduce their prison populations to address overcrowding, assessments of California\u2019s experience with AB109 should consider this potential improvement in age-adjusted mortality.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0284609","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,28]],"date-time":"2023-04-28T17:29:56Z","timestamp":1682702996000},"page":"e0284609","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["California\u2019s Public Safety Realignment Act and prisoner mortality"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2928-425X","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Christopher L.","family":"Rowe","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Alan","family":"Hubbard","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jennifer","family":"Ahern","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,28]]},"reference":[{"edition":"12","volume-title":"World Prison Population List:","year":"2018","key":"pone.0284609.ref001"},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref002","article-title":"Prisoners in 2017.","author":"J Bronson","year":"2019","journal-title":"Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice;"},{"volume-title":"Decarceration strategies: How 5 states achieved substantial prison population reductions","year":"2018","author":"D Schrantz","key":"pone.0284609.ref003"},{"journal-title":"Plata","year":"2011","author":"v Brown","key":"pone.0284609.ref004"},{"volume-title":"Corrections Realignment: One Year Later.","year":"2012","author":"D. Misczynski","key":"pone.0284609.ref005"},{"volume-title":"California\u2019s Historic Corrections Reforms.","year":"2016","author":"M Lofstrom","key":"pone.0284609.ref006"},{"volume-title":"Public Safety Realignment: Impacts So Far","year":"2015","author":"M Lofstrom","key":"pone.0284609.ref007"},{"volume-title":"Realignment, Incarceration, and Crime Trends in California","year":"2015","author":"M Lofstrom","key":"pone.0284609.ref008"},{"volume-title":"Impact of Realignment on County Jail Populations","year":"2013","author":"M Lofstrom","key":"pone.0284609.ref009"},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref010","first-page":"009385482092338","article-title":"Were California\u2019s Decarceration Efforts Smart? A Quasi-Experimental Examination of Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Disparities.","author":"A Gottlieb","year":"2020","journal-title":"Criminal Justice and Behavior"},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref011","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.31979\/THEMIS.2016.0406","article-title":"AB 109 and its impact on prison overcrowding and recidivism: A policy analysis","volume":"4","author":"A. Wootton","year":"2016","journal-title":"Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science"},{"volume-title":"Realignment and Recidivism in California.","year":"2017","author":"M Bird","key":"pone.0284609.ref012"},{"volume-title":"Do Local Realignment Policies Affect Recidivism in California?","year":"2014","author":"M Bird","key":"pone.0284609.ref013"},{"volume-title":"Is Public Safety Realignment Reducing Recidivism in California?","year":"2014","author":"M Lofstrom","key":"pone.0284609.ref014"},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref015","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"176","DOI":"10.1177\/0002716215603319","article-title":"Realignment and recidivism","volume":"664","author":"M Bird","year":"2016","journal-title":"The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science"},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref016","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"601","DOI":"10.1177\/0887403415604900","article-title":"Policy change and recidivism: the effects of California realignment and local implementation strategies on rearrest and reconviction.","volume":"28","author":"M Bird","year":"2015","journal-title":"Criminal Justice Policy Review"},{"volume-title":"Public Safety Realignment and Crime Rates in California","year":"2013","author":"M Lofstrom","key":"pone.0284609.ref017"},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref018","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"315","DOI":"10.1111\/1745-9133.12199","article-title":"Is downsizing prisons dangerous? The effect of California\u2019s realignment act on public safety","volume":"15","author":"J Sundt","year":"2016","journal-title":"Criminology and Public Policy"},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref019","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"196","DOI":"10.1177\/0002716215599732","article-title":"Incarceration and crime: evidence from California\u2019s public safety realignment reform","volume":"664","author":"M Lofstrom","year":"2016","journal-title":"The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science"},{"journal-title":"Special Report: Improvements in the Quality of California\u2019s Prison Medical Care System","year":"2015","author":"J.C. Kelso","key":"pone.0284609.ref020"},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref021","unstructured":"California Correctional Health Care Services. Health Care Services Dashboard. [cited 31 Aug 2020]. Available: https:\/\/cchcs.ca.gov\/reports\/#dashboard"},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref022","unstructured":"Petersilia J. 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United States Department of Justice","author":"ME Noonan","year":"2016","journal-title":"Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics"},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref026","article-title":"Office Of Justice Programs.","author":"United States Department Of Justice","year":"2017","journal-title":"Bureau Of Justice Statistics. National Corrections Reporting Program, 2000\u20132015: Version 1. ICPSR\u2014Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research"},{"journal-title":"Deaths in Custody Data, 2005\u20132018.","year":"2019","author":"State of California, Department of Justice, Criminal Justice Statistics Center","key":"pone.0284609.ref027"},{"journal-title":"Open Justice","year":"2020","author":"California Department of Justice","key":"pone.0284609.ref028"},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref029","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"493","DOI":"10.1198\/jasa.2009.ap08746","article-title":"Synthetic control methods for comparative case studies: Estimating the effect of California\u2019s tobacco control program","volume":"105","author":"A Abadie","year":"2010","journal-title":"Journal of the American Statistical Association"},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref030","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"495","DOI":"10.1111\/ajps.12116","article-title":"Comparative Politics and the Synthetic Control Method.","volume":"59","author":"A Abadie","year":"2015","journal-title":"American Journal of Political Science"},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref031","unstructured":"Urban Institute. A Matter of Time: The Causes and Consequences of Rising Time Served in America\u2019s Prisons. Washington, D.C.; 2017 Jul. Available: https:\/\/apps.urban.org\/features\/long-prison-terms\/intro.html"},{"volume-title":"Mortality in the United States, 2018.","year":"2020","author":"J Xu","key":"pone.0284609.ref032"},{"journal-title":"Analysis of 2014 Inmate Death Reviews in the California Correctional Healthcare System","year":"2015","author":"K. 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Bureau of Justice Statistics."},{"journal-title":"Monthly Reports of Population, September 2011\u2014","year":"2012","author":"California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation","key":"pone.0284609.ref038"},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref039","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"448","DOI":"10.1177\/1462474514539535","article-title":"Decarceration and its possible effects on inmates, staff, and communities.","volume":"16","author":"B Garland","year":"2014","journal-title":"Punishment & Society."},{"key":"pone.0284609.ref040","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"160","DOI":"10.1007\/s11606-011-1858-7","article-title":"Confined to ignorance: the absence of prisoner information from nationally representative health data sets","volume":"27","author":"C Ahalt","year":"2012","journal-title":"J Gen Intern Med"}],"container-title":["PLOS ONE"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0284609","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,28]],"date-time":"2023-04-28T17:30:42Z","timestamp":1682703042000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0284609"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Andrea","family":"Cioffi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"editor","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,28]]},"references-count":40,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,28]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0284609","relation":{},"ISSN":["1932-6203"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"1932-6203"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,28]]}}}