The reception process of a socio-educational detention center for adolescents from the perspective of environmental psychology

The reception process aims to provide technical, psychosocial and medical care during the arrival of the adolescent in a juvenile detention after sentencing. This service is guided by the National System of Socio-Educational Care and follow a policy integrated with joint actions of accountability, education, health and social assistance, in the context of human development of socio-educational measures. Objective: To describe the environmental traces left by adolescents after have completed  the reception process  in  Socio-Educational detention Centers in the State of Ceara. Methods: This is a cross sectional study, with descriptive and qualitative approach.  The research was held in the areas where previously the adolescents had completed the reception process. Data were collected by systematic observation using field diary reports and discussions guided by content analysis. Results: The environmental traces were associated with the adolescents' previous and current experiences, through the appropriation practices of the spaces of the Socio-educational Center, configured as a place of permanence, movement or passage in constant articulation with social, cultural, economic, political, historical and psychological factors. Conclusion: In the State of Ceara, the areas of Detention Centers reserved for  socio-educational purposes as a long-term space for psychosocial and medical care, violates the basic rights of comprehensive care for adolescents. This reality points to the vulnerability of adolescents when exposed to unhealthy physical structures, and demonstrates the need for studies that deepen the discussions from the perspective of the person-environment inter-relationship.