Prevalence of Mental Illness in Inmates of District Jail of Etawah

This paper presents the prevalence rates of mental illness like schizophrenia and major affective disorders by age, substance abuse and nature of offence among male jail detainees. This study was aimed to study socio-demographic profile of prisoners of district jail and to find out the current prevalence of mental illness among prisoners. This study was carried out on total 1200 male prisoners in district jail of Etawah. We included only those prisoners who were clinically diagnosed as suffering from some mental health problem and were under psychiatric treatment for the same. Out of the total 1200 prisoners only 79 were found to be suffering from some sort of mental illness. A large part of mental morbidity was contributed by substance abuse and its related consequences. We have observed that most of the mentally disturbed individuals are involved in commission of violent offences. There could be a significant reduction in crime rates if such individuals were timely diagnosed and treated thus we recommend regular checkup of all prisoners by a psychiatrist for early diagnosis and treatment.