Abstract: Objective To analyze the characteristics in the incarcerated inmate’s death, investigate the main cause of death of the incarcerated inmate and provide some information for forensic investigation. Methods The cases from the forensic medical center of Shanxi Medical University from 2005 to 2013 were selected. The statistical analysis was performed by using the incarcerated inmate’s gender, age, cause of death, manner of death, and disease as the markers. Results There were 100 men, 5 women in the 105 incarcerated inmates; the age range was from 16 to 65 years; Inmates were mostly died of natural diseases, mainly in the respiratory and cardiovascular diseases; the main unnatural death was suicide with a rate of 54.5％. Conclusion At present, most incarcerated inmate’s death are due to natural diseases. The prison should improve incarcerated inmate’s lives, work and health care conditions, and strengthen supervision of law enforcement.

Key words: forensic pathology, cause of death, incarcerated person, cases analysis