Of money and life The Punch
Published 4 July 2021
It is a common saying that money isn’t everything. Reggae legend Bob Marley gave that piece of wisdom its ultimate expression. According to a friend, who witnessed the exchange, a European journalist once asked Marley about his wealth. “Some people are so poor all they have is money,” the rastaman responded, most likely with his characteristic quizzical stare. “You think having money makes you wealthy?”
Another music legend, soul man Sam Cooke, took the issue from the realm of philosophy to that of experience. We may remember him more for “Cupid,” his perennial ode to Valentine’s. Just as soulfully lovelorn is his mid-1960s mega-hit “Another Saturday Night.”
Of money and life The Punch
Published 4 July 2021
It is a common saying that money isn’t everything. Reggae legend Bob Marley gave that piece of wisdom its ultimate expression. According to a friend, who witnessed the exchange, a European journalist once asked Marley about his wealth. “Some people are so poor all they have is money,” the rastaman responded, most likely with his characteristic quizzical stare. “You think having money makes you wealthy?”
Another music legend, soul man Sam Cooke, took the issue from the realm of philosophy to that of experience. We may remember him more for “Cupid,” his perennial ode to Valentine’s. Just as soulfully lovelorn is his mid-1960s mega-hit “Another Saturday Night.”
March 2, 2021 Association between county jail incarceration and cause-specific county mortality in the USA, 1987–2017: a retrospective, longitudinal study
Concerns about public safety and justice have long been central to discussions and debate over modern mass incarceration in the United States. But, especially as a result of the COVID pandemic, we are seeing more and more consideration of incarceration as a public
health issue. Consequently, I was really struck by this new research published online at
The Lancet Public Health which analyzes mortality associated with jails over three decades (and has the title that serves as the title of this post). Here is the Summary from this paper:
County jail incarceration rates in the USA are potential drivers of many causes of death in the communities where they are located, with particularly pronounced effects on the number of deaths caused by infectious and respiratory diseases, drug overdose, and suicide, according to a long-term analysis of jail incarceration and county-level mortality across 1,094 counties between 1987 and 2017, published in The Lancet Public Health journal.
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An analysis of U.S. county-level data found a strong association between jail incarceration and death rates from infectious diseases, chronic lower respiratory disease, drug use, and suicide, in a new study by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The researchers found this was the case to a lesser extent for heart disease and cancer. The study is the first to examine the link between the expansion of the jail population and multiple specific causes of death at the county level, and adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting that decarceration strategies would improve public health. Findings are published online in the journal