Black Men Live Longer in Prison than Out?

A study of North Carolina inmates has been lighting up certain blawgs/blogs over at the end of last week and over the weekend.  According to the study black men may survive longer in prison than on the streets, specifically, "Black men are half as likely to die at any given time if they're in prison than if they aren't[.]"

Intuitively, this makes a lot of sense.  

Let me tell you a story.  On the morning that I left FCI, Morgantown I was in an area of the institution called R & D, reception and discharge, changing into my street clothes from prison khakis.  A young black guy was also dressing in the clothes his people sent in.  His clothes were so out-sized that I remarked that he must have lost a lot of weight.  He said that had he not gone to jail he would have likely died from hypertension illness that he did not know he suffered from.  Setting aside the perils that live on the streets represent, the prison diet (as bad as it is) and the medical care in jail for certain populations is so much better than what was available to these guys in Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, D.C. and Baltimore where a lot of the population at Morgantown hailed from.  

Then you subtract out drugs and alcohol, guns, and gang violence life in prison can be an objective improvement.