Suicide and mental health among prison officers: an analysis of how digital media portray these events

Abstract

The objective of this study was to analyze how digital media portray suicide among prison officers, identifying predominant narratives, emphasized aspects, and possible impacts on public opinion. A total of 106 news reports were collected from social media platforms between September 2023 and March 2025 through an exploratory study using topic tracking methods. The posts were classified into three categories: "Occurrence" (25.5%), "Informative" (29.2%), and "Preventive measures" (45.3%). Most posts originated from labor unions and news portals. The most recurrent narrative links the rise in suicides among prison officers to precarious working conditions and the need for effective prevention measures. The results indicate that digital discourse tends to reinforce the recognition of the psychological suffering of these professionals, while also demanding institutional actions for mental healthcare and protection.

Keywords
Prison officers; Suicide; Mental health; Social media

Resumo

O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar como as mídias digitais retratam o suicídio entre policiais penais, identificando narrativas predominantes, aspectos enfatizados e possíveis impactos na opinião pública. Foram coletadas 106 notícias em plataformas sociodigitais entre setembro de 2023 e março de 2025 por meio de estudo exploratório com método de rastreamento de tópicos. As publicações foram classificadas em três categorias: “Ocorrência” (25,5%), “Informativa” (29,2%) e “Medidas preventivas” (45,3%). A maioria das postagens partiu de sindicatos da categoria e de portais jornalísticos. A narrativa mais recorrente relaciona o aumento do suicídio entre policiais penais às precárias condições de trabalho e à necessidade de medidas de prevenção. Os resultados indicam que o discurso digital tende a reforçar o reconhecimento do sofrimento psíquico desses profissionais ao mesmo tempo em que demanda ações institucionais de cuidado e proteção à Saúde Mental.

Palavras-chave
Policial penal; Suicídio; Saúde mental; Redes sociais

Resumen

El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar cómo los medios digitales retratan el suicidio entre funcionarios de prisiones, identificando narrativas predominantes, aspectos enfatizados y posibles impactos en la opinión pública. Se colectaron 106 noticias en plataformas sociodigitales entre septiembre de 2023 y marzo de 2025, por medio de un estudio exploratorio con método de rastreo de tópicos. Las publicaciones se clasificaron en tres categorías: “Evento” (25,5%), “Informativa” (29,2%) y “Medidas preventivas” (45,3%). La mayoría de las publicaciones partió de sindicatos de la categoría y de páginas web periodísticas. La narrativa más recurrente relaciona el aumento del suicidio entre funcionarios de prisiones con las precarias condiciones de trabajo y la necesidad de medidas de prevención. Los resultados indican que el discurso digital tiende a reforzar el reconocimiento del sufrimiento psíquico de esos profesionales, al mismo tiempo en que demanda acciones institucionales de cuidado y protección de la salud mental.

Palabras clave
Funcionarios de prisiones; Suicidio; Salud mental; Redes sociales

Introduction

Suicide is a global public health problem. According to the World Health Organization¹, more than 720,000 people die by suicide every year, which corresponds to one death every 40 seconds. It is a complex, multifactorial phenomenon that can be analyzed from different theoretical and disciplinary perspectives².

Traditionally, studies on the subject emphasize the psychopathological dimension, relating suicide to mental disorders and individual psychological suffering. However, sociological approaches, inaugurated by Émile Durkheim in 1978 and developed by contemporary authors, have highlighted the role played by social factors (inequality, unemployment, and precarious living conditions), as well as cultural and institutional factors, in the understanding of this phenomenon^3,4.

The broadening of suicide analysis is also advocated by contemporary suicidology, which challenges the hegemonic discourse that reduces suicide exclusively to a mental health problem and highlights its multifaceted nature, defending the need for interdisciplinary approaches that also consider historical, political, and social contexts⁵.

Some studies state that clinical and biological aspects are risk factors for suicide^6,7, while others highlight sociodemographic risk factors such as age, gender, sexual orientation, marital and parental status, education, income, religion, migratory or minority status⁴. In addition to these, deprivation of liberty and profession are reported as factors that play an important role in suicidal behavior^8,9.

Although work-related conditions are considered a risk factor for suicide, few studies have focused on the subject, even though evidence has shown that jobs with low control and low social support are associated with higher suicide rates¹⁰. Some professional categories are recurrent in studies that discuss the relationship between suicide and work, such as health professionals^11,12, construction workers¹³, and public safety workers^14-18.

For workers, issues such as moral and sexual harassment, high psychological, cognitive, and physical demands, low degree of autonomy and control over work, low social support in the workplace, conflicts between work and family, job dissatisfaction, fear of losing the job or being demoted, long working hours or working in shifts, and precarious employment relations are risk factors for the occurrence of mental disorders and suicide^8,19.

In Brazil, suicide rates have been increasing for some groups of workers. Social and racial inequalities, low levels of schooling, isolation, and precarious employment relations are listed as factors that contribute to the worsening of psychological suffering and the increase in these rates⁸.

Despite the importance of the relationship between work and suicide, few national studies have investigated this subject. Palma and collaborators⁸ analyzed the temporal trend of suicides in Brazil by evaluating the socio-occupational profile of registered cases based on data contained in the Mortality Information System (SIM) between 2010 and 2019. During this period, 112,164 suicides were identified (7.4% of deaths from external causes). The risk of suicide was 3.5 times higher among men (with a rate of 10.6/100,000 men) compared to women. Among the victims in 2019, farmers and fishers had the highest suicide mortality rate: 21.7/100,000; among workers in the security forces, the rate was 20.4/100,000⁸.

According to the Brazilian Public Security Yearbook²⁰, suicides among civil and military police officers in Brazil have increased since 2018, when it recorded around 99 occurrences. The number increased to 137 in 2023 and stood at 126 in 2024. Despite the slight decrease from 2023 to 2024 (8% reduction), the historical series that began in 2018 indicates a relatively constant increase in deaths from this cause among police officers²⁰.

In this publication, the absence of data on suicide among Prison Officers (PO) suggests that the mental suffering of these workers has been silenced or erased, with many Brazilian states not disclosing them or classifying them as confidential²¹. This invisibility hinders the understanding of the phenomenon and highlights the lack of support for the category in public prevention policies.

Although the activity of guarding people deprived of liberty (PDL) emerged alongside prisons in Brazil, only in 2019, through Constitutional Amendment No. 104/19²², were such workers, previously called “jailers” or “prison agents”, recognized as members of the Brazilian police forces and named Prison Officers. However, the regulation of this professional activity advances slowly, while these professionals are constantly exposed to violent and challenging situations that require great resilience to deal with daily risks^23,24.

In addition to surveilling and guarding prison units, their duties include knowledge of laws and regulations, communication skills, and the ability to react quickly to emergencies such as riots or escape attempts²⁴. They are also responsible for evaluating urgent and emergency health situations in prisons and escorting inmates for medical care and court hearings. Therefore, these professionals have an intense workload and great responsibility for ensuring public safety, the access of PDL to services set forth in the Sentence Execution Act, and the functioning of the prison system, which can impact their mental health²⁵.

Constant exposure to conflicts, a feeling of vulnerability, and an institutional culture that discourages seeking psychological help contribute to the increase in mental illness among public safety professionals²⁰. Due to the peculiarities of the profession, the suicide rate among these workers is two to three times higher than that of the general population²⁰.

In 2024, the Institute for Suicide Research, Prevention, and Studies (IPPES) published in its Bulletin the occurrence of 104 suicides of active POs between 2018 and 2023 and 7 suicides of inactive POs²¹. The data were obtained through the Access to Information Act (LAI) and monitoring of unofficial sources (newspapers, condolence messages, agents’ networks). The underreporting of these events is recurrent, which explains the discrepant data between different sources of information²¹.

Due to its importance and magnitude, the debate on the suicide and mental health of these professionals has gained increasing space in digital media, especially on social media, news portals, and institutional websites. Considering the importance of social media in contemporary life as a source of information, dissemination of opinions and lifestyles, and formation of identities, researchers have examined various facets of the representations of suicide in those spaces.

Such studies have mainly addressed the effects of news reports on celebrity suicides²⁶, the detection of suicide-related content (harmful or protective)²⁷, the quantification of suicidal tendency on social media²⁸, and the relationship between problematic internet use and suicide^29,30. The studies’ methodological approaches are varied, including content analysis, lexical visualization (word cloud), and systematic reviews, highlighting the use of social media in prevention^31,32.

Thus, considering the contemporary nature of digital platforms and the importance of suicide as a public health problem, this article aimed to identify and analyze how digital media portray the suicide of POs and the main narratives constructed on the subject. It seeks to understand what aspects are emphasized, how the problem is addressed, and what discourses predominate, considering possible patterns, trends, and influences on the social perception of the phenomenon.

Methodology

This is a qualitative, exploratory, and analytical study that collected and analyzed data on online news and social media posts between September 2023 and March 2025. The material was selected through the Google search engine, using the “All” and “News” tabs. This strategy was adopted to encompass a variety of sources, including news portals, political and informal blogs, and institutional websites of PO unions and other public associations.

In addition, social media posts were analyzed, specifically posts on Facebook and Instagram, due to the importance of these platforms in disseminating information and shaping opinions. The descriptors “policiais penais”, “agentes penitenciários”, “suicídio”, and “saúde mental” were used to collect the posts.

Keyword searches on Google and Facebook retrieved posts and news reports published between 2013 and 2025. Unlike Google, Facebook did not provide the exact number of posts found per keyword. As it is not possible to search by keywords on Instagram, the material was manually selected from official profiles (unions and associations) of prison officers, ensuring relevance and contextualization.

The inclusion criteria considered free-access, complete posts available in Portuguese that directly addressed the mental health or suicide of POs. Posts that were repeated on different websites and posts that dealt with suicide in other professional categories were excluded.

To identify news reports on social media, the social media event detection method proposed by Hu et al.³³ was used. The first step in this process was data collection from the social media platforms Instagram and Facebook, as well as online news portals, including newspapers and websites of unions and organizations. In this study, data collection was carried out manually, feeding a database of posts and news reports that address the topic of suicide and mental health among POs. This approach enabled the continuous inclusion of relevant information as new posts and articles were published, ensuring that the database was always up-to-date.

After data collection, event detection techniques³³ were applied, which include the identification of specific characteristics related to suicide events and discussions about mental health. This sequence of steps ensures robustness to the analysis and guarantees that the collected data accurately reflect ongoing conversations on the topic.

To systematize the data, the posts were categorized into three main groups, according to their focus:

1. Occurrence – posts reporting concrete cases of suicide among POs, including obituaries and news reports on specific episodes;

2. Informative – posts that aim to disseminate the phenomenon of suicide in this category, providing references, data, and information on the subject;

3. Preventive measures – content that addresses campaigns, programs, and events aimed at preventing suicide among POs.

The analysis of the set of posts was guided by Foucault’s perspective on discourse analysis³⁴, which views discourse not only as an expression of language but as a social practice that produces and organizes knowledge and ways of understanding certain phenomena. The aim was to understand how narratives about psychic suffering and death among POs are produced, reiterated, or silenced, and how these discursive formations configure fields of visibility and exclusion in the digital space.

To operationalize this analysis, the natural language processing (NLP) stage in Python served as a technical means of empirically identifying discursive regularities. The most recurrent words, identified through the automated processing of the texts, indicated the predominant enunciation axes regarding mental health and suicide among POs.

Initially, the unique address of the news reports on the internet, known by the acronym URL (Uniform Resource Locator), was extracted, and the texts were collected. The data was matched using the requests library and BeautifulSoup. Then, the text was pre-processed: irrelevant words (stopwords) were removed, such as prepositions, articles, and the study’s keywords: “suicídio”, “policiais penais”, and “agente penitenciário”, as these were the research descriptors.

The remaining words were counted using the Counter function, which generated a list of the most frequent words. These were used to create a word cloud to visualize the predominant narratives in the news reports, excluding specific terms that do not contribute to understanding the context. The automated process and the use of libraries in Python enabled an effective and scalable analysis of the textual data, facilitating the identification of discourse trends and patterns in the news reports.

As for the data collected from social media, many posts consisted of images and videos. Such posts could not be analyzed in the same way as the news posts, which depended on complete texts. Thus, a manual qualitative analysis was performed, in which the topics covered were categorized and discourse patterns were identified. The analysis also investigated what words appear frequently and found patterns in the way the posts are structured.

The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, in accordance with Substantiated Opinion No. 7.035.000.

Results and discussion

A total of 106 posts were identified, 62 on Google and 44 social media posts (Instagram and Facebook) (Figure 1). The number of news reports found in each category was as follows: 27 (25.5%) in the “Occurrence” category, 31 (29.2%) in the “Informative” category, and 48 (45.3%) in the “Preventive Measures” category. It was found that the websites that post the most on the subject are those of PO unions and institutions such as Legislative Assemblies, Public Security Departments, and the Chamber of Deputies, both on news portals and on social media.

Figure 1
Flowchart of the research stages.

The data analysis resulted in the identification of posts originating from 19 Brazilian states, namely: Acre, Alagoas, Ceará, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Pará, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo, Tocantins, and the Federal District (Figure 2). It is important to mention that the search was conducted without geographic filters, and the concentration of posts in these states reflects their places of origin.

Figure 2
Distribution map of the number of posts by state.

In the digital networks analyzed in the present study, the PO unions were found to be primarily responsible for disseminating information on the subject on social media (54.5%). On Google online platforms, digital press reports were the predominant sources (46.8%), with unions and official organizations ranking second as dissemination agents (each accounting for 22.6%). Minas Gerais was the state with the highest volume of posts on social media (25%), and Ceará, of news reports on Google platforms (18.3%) (Figure 2).

The analysis of the posts revealed that PO suicide cases are attributed to adverse working conditions, such as work overload, moral harassment, psychological pressure, and the rigid prison hierarchy. In addition, the posts cite fear of reporting abuse and lack of institutional support. All these conditions have already been observed in other studies on the subject^13,20,24,35.

The importance of aspects related to union participation and mental illness can be visualized in the word cloud presented in Figure 3. Although it is a visually useful tool, it is important to mention that the word cloud does not capture the complexity of the interactions between the terms and should be interpreted as a tool to complement qualitative analysis.

Figure 3
Word cloud of news reports on the suicide of prison officers.

As can be seen in Figure 3, the terms “sindicato” (labor union), “psicológico” (psychological), and “prevenção” (prevention) stand out, indicating that these terms are representative in conversations about PO mental health and suicide. The prominence of the word “sindicato” (labor union) is aligned with these organizations’ mission to defend the corporate interests of POs, which includes occupational health.²³ In addition, it may signal the importance given by POs to the collective action implemented by their associations to defend their interests and dialogue with the State, which is the employer and manager of working conditions, environments and processes, as well as the organizer of the health services provision throughout the country, by means of the Brazilian National Health System (SUS).

The strong presence of the words “psicológico” (psychological) and “prevenção” (prevention) may signal the understanding that suicide is not a fatality, but the outcome of a process of suffering and mental illness resulting from multiple factors, such as working while exposed to psychosocial risks and stress in the workplace, for example^13,20. The need for preventive measures aimed at stress management is recognized, as well as measures targeted at the development of coping strategies, such as access to psychological support, to deal with the emotional and mental impacts associated with the exercise of this profession^17,24,25.

“Prevenção” (prevention) emerged as a very relevant theme in the set of posts, present in almost half of them, and as a very representative term in the word cloud. Prevention is a key concept in posts about suicide and mental health promotion, and such posts disseminate events and prevention programs (Setembro Amarelo, Janeiro Branco, and webinars, among others). Many of these events are already part of the agendas of public health institutions and constitute strategies for disseminating information on many aspects: identification of signs of suffering and suicide risk, reduction in the stigma related to the subject, and services that provide healthcare for people at risk.

Prevention involves not only providing education about mental health¹⁷ and addressing problems such as alcoholism, illicit drug use, and treatment of mental disorders unrelated to work^7,10, but fundamentally identifying and mitigating risk factors, particularly those present in workplaces, over which POs rarely have control^13-16. These conditions require changes in work organization, management styles, and workplace environment; therefore, they are strongly subordinate to decisions made by the prison system administration. Not by chance, the word “administration” also appears prominently in Figure 3.

Another term that stood out was “social”, which reflects the understanding that, beyond the biological contingencies and personal biographies that contribute to the context that generates suicide, its social determination, based on living and working conditions, is strongly perceived. According to Oliveira and Ribeiro³⁵, the work environment of POs is marked by hierarchical challenges that have a direct impact on their mental health. In addition, they face the stigma of dealing directly with socially rejected individuals and of being frequently labeled as violent, corrupt, and torturers²³.

In the study’s historical time frame, the word “pandemia” (pandemic) also stood out (Figure 3). In addition to the usual challenges associated with the PO’s work³⁶, the public health emergency caused by the COVID-19 virus brought additional challenges to the mental health of the Brazilian POs.

Exposure to risky situations and the uncertainty generated by the pandemic in the highly unsanitary and overcrowded Brazilian prisons intensified stress and anxiety among these professionals³⁷. The need to deal with new safety guidelines while maintaining in-person work, as well as the pressure to maintain order in a crisis context, may have exacerbated pre-existing mental health problems, as not only did they have to continue working, but many lost their lives or had family members affected by the disease³⁷.

“Estresse” (stress) is a central critical factor affecting the mental health of POs. It results from a combination of factors, including the demanding nature of their duties and the constant pressure to make quick decisions in highly stressful situations. In a technical note released by the Bureaucracy Studies Center of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (NEB/FGV)³⁸, occupational stress was associated with many factors in the pandemic context: the need to maintain rigorous personal hygiene practices when approaching and contacting inmates, the distance that should be kept from colleagues, fear of contaminating their own families, increased workload resulting from reduced staffing, daily tension, changes in routine, and the adoption of new work procedures.

A predominant tone of concern and denunciation was also identified in the posts and interactions, revealing that the increase in the number of suicide cases among POs discloses a scenario of institutional negligence regarding the mental health of these professionals. At the same time, some posts emphasized that publicizing their precarious working conditions gives rise to demands for concrete political measures that should be taken by the State to improve the mental health of these professionals.

The recurrence of the topics highlighted in Figure 3 suggests that suicide is not an isolated issue; rather, it is structural and requires institutional changes. The true magnitude of the problem is unclear, as numerical data and their sources are not fully presented. The posts seem to be motivated by the agenda of institutional campaigns about suicide prevention and the occurrence of suicide cases among members of the category, which creates opportunities for posting, speculation about the relationship between suicide and work, complaints, and demands for improved working conditions and environments.

According to Johnston and Ricciardelli³⁹, the prison environment is characterized by an organizational culture that discourages the expression of emotional vulnerabilities. This “organizational silence” hinders the search for help and aggravates the risk of suicide^20,21.

However, there are reports of interesting prevention experiences. Some of the posts analyzed in this study mention institutional initiatives aimed at suicide prevention among POs, especially the Yellow September and White January campaigns, in which webinars, lectures, and discussion groups are held. Many of these actions promote direct psychological/psychiatric care and follow-up, recognition of the seriousness of the problem, and institutional mobilization around it⁴⁰.

The posts also emphasize the importance of protective measures related to individual factors that improve quality of life and prevent suicide. Previous studies^14,15,17 have indicated that exercise, good family relationships, cohesion at work, and professional autonomy are linked to better mental health indicators. However, few posts detail care practices that go beyond traditional support, such as integrative activities and alternative therapies.

To prevent suicide among POs, workplace improvements should include permanent mental health programs with confidential psychological care, the creation of spaces for listening and providing psychosocial support in correctional facilities²¹, emotional resilience and stress management training⁴, periodic screenings for early detection of mental disorders⁴¹, and the adoption of organizational measures that reduce the workload and work-family conflicts⁴².

Within Brazilian public security institutions, specific actions have been implemented for mental health care and suicide prevention among POs, such as: 1) the Escuta SUSP Project, which offers free confidential psychological care to public safety professionals⁴³, 2) the Valoriza Saúde em Foco Project, which aims to promote comprehensive health and quality of life actions for employees of the prison system⁴⁴, and 3) the National Program for the Quality of Life of Public Safety Professionals (Pró-Vida), of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, which aims to promote the mental health and quality of life of public safety professionals, including POs⁴³. These initiatives have not been evaluated yet, and their impact is unknown.

In the state of São Paulo, Law No. 12622, approved in 2007, authorized the state Executive Branch to create the Mental Health Program for São Paulo Prison Officers - a series of measures aimed at prevention, comprehensive care for those affected by mental disorders, and free access to medication⁴³. One of the proposals was the creation of an information system linked to the SUS. This initiative would enable a deeper understanding of the conditions experienced by POs, contributing to the development of public policies more consistent with their needs.

The creation of specific programs for public safety professionals has been advocated as an essential step to mitigate the impacts of the profession on these workers’ mental health^20,21. Ideally, these measures should be structured and integrated into people management practices, instead of being isolated and reactive initiatives. In addition, workers’ representatives should participate in their implementation.

Despite being well-intentioned, care and prevention actions focused on mental health tend to simplify complex phenomena, reducing psychological suffering to the individual sphere and ignoring structural inequalities and violence⁴⁰. Promoting mental health requires more than self-care or medicalization: it requires restructuring the conditions that perpetuate suffering and guaranteeing basic rights, understanding emotional suffering as a collective phenomenon and not just an individual one.

As mentioned earlier, suicide prevention requires a multifaceted approach that considers the interaction between individual, social, and cultural factors, as there is no universal solution applicable to all contexts. Thus, isolated actions have little impact on the population, and it is essential to combine public health strategies with individualized clinical interventions⁴⁵ that may include: reduced access to lethal means, adequate treatment of mental disorders, training of health professionals, and responsible media communication^31,45.

The following measures are recommended: implementing an approach based on the reporting of self-inflicted injuries, strengthening health surveillance systems, training primary care professionals to identify early signs and emergency teams to provide humane support, promoting specific actions for vulnerable groups (indigenous people, black people, the LGBTQIA+ population, and professionals working under precarious conditions), and implementing a culturally sensitive approach that reduces stigma and provides post-attempt follow-up. Prevention should involve coordinated intersectoral and territorial actions between health, education, social assistance, and the community, expanding support networks and mental health promotion strategies^40,45-47.

It is worth noting that the methodological approach adopted in this article promoted understanding not only of the frequency and geographical distribution of posts on the subject, but also of the main concerns expressed by professionals and entities that represent workers. The cross-referencing of data collected from social media and news reports generated a broader perspective on how the subject has been publicly debated among POs, offering elements for implementing actions to protect the mental health of these professionals.

Final remarks

This study showed that the current digital means of communication constitute relevant spaces where the mental suffering of psychological professionals can be visible, and that most narratives associate suicide cases with working conditions, work overload, moral harassment, hierarchical rigidity, and lack of institutional support for these professionals.

The analysis of the posts revealed data from different Brazilian states and the leading role played by unions and representative entities of the category. In addition, by portraying self-destruction cases, these entities mobilize debates about suicide prevention policies and health promotion.

The results indicate that the posts analyzed in the present study not only inform but also perform as political actors, expressing a collective demand for recognition, care, and institutional justice. The centrality of terms such as “prevenção”, “psicológico”, “sindicato”, and “administração”, both in the word cloud and the analyzed discourses, reinforces the understanding of suicide as a social and organizational phenomenon, not just an individual one.

The identification of terms and content related to prevention reveals efforts, although sporadic, in this direction, but also a necessity for institutions and managers of this professional category. It is important to mention that the scarcity of reports on structured and continuous practices of mental healthcare provision for POs indicates a gap between recognition of the problem and implementation of effective actions.

This study offers a national overview of how suicide among prison officers is portrayed in social media, revealing the discursive patterns present in posts and news reports and the coping strategies circulating there. The study highlights the need for prevention actions to be linked to profound changes in work environments and relationships, such as strengthening supportive listening spaces, implementing permanent mental health programs, investing in continuing education, and valuing workers’ participation in the formulation of prevention policies.

The data collection methodology and the dynamic nature of digital media are limitations of this study and may influence the representativeness and timeliness of the data. This is a complex subject that requires further investigation conducted through other methodologies and tools. Future studies can further analyze the impact of these narratives on social and institutional perceptions of suicide among POs, as well as investigate the effects of current campaigns and programs.

Finally, by shedding light on a subject that has been little explored in Brazilian literature, this study reaffirms the urgency of treating the mental health of POs as an ethical, political, and institutional priority. The form in which their suffering is narrated in digital media summons society, institutions, and public policy managers to seek collective solutions that guarantee fairer, safer, and healthier working conditions.

• Souza GRM, Oliveira GL, Souza RL, Ribeiro AP, Silveira AM. Suicide and mental health among prison officers: an analysis of how digital media portray these events. Interface (Botucatu). 2026; 30: e260142 https://doi.org/10.1590/interface.260142
• Funding
  The study is part of the project “Quando o trabalho encarcera: sofrimento psicossocial em trabalhadores do sistema prisional brasileiro” (When work imprisons: Psychosocial suffering among workers in the Brazilian prison system), funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Ministry of Health (MS), under CNPq/MS/SCTIE/DECIT Notice No. 45/2022, with Giovanna Reis Monteiro de Souza and Rafaelle Lopes Souza as grant recipients.
• Translator
  Carolina Siqueira Muniz Ventura

Data Availability

The dataset supporting the results of this study was made available in SciELO Data and can be accessed in: https://doi.org/10.48331/SCIELODATA.W6UWJK

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Edited by

• Editor
  Erotildes Maria Leal https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8468-4571

• Associated editor
  Robert Filipe dos Passos https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0900-4262

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  17 Apr 2026
• Date of issue
  2026

History

• Received
  26 July 2025
• Accepted
  07 Jan 2026