Detention conditions' impact on anxiety and depression levels of prisoners

Introduction. - The mortality rate in Portuguese prisons is the highest of the European Community. Two thirds of these deaths concern individuals in preventive detention, who have not yet faced trial. Objective. - Our objective is to examine the impact of different detention conditions on the anxiety and depression rates of inmates. We predict that the anxiety and depression rates would be higher for inmates in preventive detention. Results. - Results have shown that the depression rates of inmates in open detention were the lowest. Depression rates were highest among inmates in preventive detention. Discussion. - The results do not allow us to confirm our hypothesis regarding anxiety rates. Considering our results, inmates in preventive detention seem to represent the most vulnerable population of the prison in relation to the two other groups. (C) 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.