Introduction:

The study of psychological variables associated with incarceration is of essential importance today. The experience of pathological psychological states has been reported in individuals within prisons.

Objective:

To describe the states of anxiety, depression, psychological well-being and the general state of mental health of inmates in provisional prison and severe prison regimes.

Methods:

A quantitative approach was used with a type of cross-sectional and descriptive study through surveys. The population was the inmates of the provisional and severe prison regimes. The instruments used were: Subjective Well-being Scale; Goldberg General Mental Health Questionnaire; Zung and Conde scale; and Inventory of Anxiety Situations and Responses. The data were analyzed using the statistical package SPSS for Windows: version 22.0. Descriptive statistics and the T-test were used for independent samples. The study was carried out from January to May 2019.

Results:

A high perception of the deterioration of general mental health was observed. Subjective well-being showed similar values in both sample groups, with minimal differences between high and low levels of well-being. Most of the participants showed moderate anxiety levels. The experience of depression was also high; moderate and severe dysthymia were observed. All the participants of the provisional prison regime presented some variant of depression.

Conclusions:

High levels of anxiety, depression and a high deterioration of general mental health were found. Low rates of subjective well-being perception were reported.

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