The first national census of people in custody and psychiatric treatment facilities was conducted in 2011 and published in 2013. The book is called Custody and psychiatric treatment in Brazil and was written by Debora Diniz. The year of 2011 might be surprising if we consider when the first psychiatric hospital was founded in Brazil: 1921. These custody and psychiatric treatment hospitals and psychiatric wards are facilities dedicated to comply with the “security measure”, a criminal sanction applied to institutionalized people undergoing psychiatric treatment. Diniz refers to these two types of institutions as custody and psychiatric treatment facilities (estabelecimentos de custódia e tratamento psiquiátrico).
