“Prison Life Can Make You Go Crazy”: Insights Into the Situation for People With a Mental Illness in the Malawi Prison System

Figures & data

Table 1. Participant characteristics.

Participant type (N = 33)	Gender		Prison
	Male (n)	Female (n)	Chichiri (n)	Zomba (n)
Former prisoners	10	8	16	2
Malawi prison officials (senior management and prison levels)
Senior prison system: healthcare*	1	–	–	1
Senior prison system: administration*	1	–	–	1
Clinical health officer	–	1	1	–
Prison officers	1	1	2	–
National professional stakeholders**
Malawi Prison Inspectorate (1)	–	–	–	–
Judiciary (2)	–	–	–	–
Malawi Human Rights Commission (1)	–	–	–	–
District Health Office (1)	–	–	–	–
Director of Public Prosecution (2)	–	–	–	–
Human rights NGO (2)	–	–	–	–
Mental health NGO (1)	–	–	–	–

Note. Former prisoner participants were on average 35.5 years old (SD = 7.8). Females were on average younger than male prisoners. Females (M = 33.6, SD = 8.0) Males (M = 37, SD = 7.8).

Prison staff and professional stakeholders were on average 42.4 years old (SD = 7.7).

* Zomba is the Malawi Prison Services Headquarters. www.mps.gov.mw.

** National professional stakeholders included six males and four females but to protect anonymity individual gender are not provided.

Figure 1. Thematic map.

Data availability statement

Data not available. Participants of this study did not give written consent for their data to be shared publicly, so due to the sensitive nature of the research supporting data is not available.