Alcohol and reoffending - Who cares?

Thousands of prisoners with severe alcohol problems will be released from jail this year without having been treated to prevent them returning to heavy drinking and crime according to a new report published by the Prison Reform Trust.

The report, Alcohol and re-offending – who cares? reveals that the Prison Service does not have an alcohol harm reduction strategy to address the behaviour of prisoners who have severe alcohol dependency problems despite the government’s concerns about alcohol- related violence and public disorder. Nearly two-thirds of sentenced male prisoners (63 per cent) and four-fifths of female sentenced prisoners (39 per cent) admit to hazardous drinking which carries the risk of physical or mental harm. Of these, about half, amounting to 20,000 people, have a severe alcohol dependency.

The annual estimated cost of alcohol-related crime and disorder, which will have affected many communities over Christmas and New Year, is around £7.3 billion.

Overall two-thirds of the 74,000 prisoners in England and Wales are hazardous drinkers but the report says that a recent Prison Service survey found that only one jail had policies dedicated to dealing with prisoners who have been hazardous drinkers.

The report highlights the fact that in some prisons half of all inmates have serious alcohol problems which are related to their offending. It says there are very few programmes available that will actually make a difference and change their drinking habits. In addition, there are limited opportunities for aftercare on release from prison due to a chronic shortage of community based alcohol services. Such as exist are starved of resources, largely as a result of the government’s failure to set priorities for alcohol problems in a yet-to-appear national strategy.

The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, recently told the Home Affairs Select Committee that she was concerned about the shortage of provision for prisoners with alcohol problems. She said:

“At the moment all that is available is tied into programmes designed for other kinds of substance abuse, for drug programmes, there is nothing specific and nothing specifically ring-fenced and I definitely think there should be.”

Six out of ten prisoners are reconvicted within two years of release from jail and three-quarters of young offenders return to crime. The report notes that recent research has found that programmes for offenders with drinking problems can reduce the likelihood of re-offending. It concludes that there is an urgent need to put in place a well-resourced alcohol harm reduction strategy. It proposes:

The Prison Service, supported by the NHS, should draw up an alcohol harm reduction strategy that provides guidance to individual prisons to have alcohol intervention programmes in place that link up with drug treatment work in prisons. The strategy needs to be supported by significant extra investment.

There should be effective screening tools put in place such as the AUDIT tool developed by the World Health Organisation to identify hazardous drinkers as they are received into custody.

There should be ring fenced alcohol treatment programmes available, particularly in training and dispersal prisons, for severe dependent alcohol users and motivational programmes for hazardous users.

Onward referrals should be set up for those on release from custody to provide offenders with continuing support once back in the community.

Procedures need to be put in place to monitor the number of people who enter prison with alcohol problems, the numbers who then complete detoxification courses and the numbers who take up and complete an intervention programme.

The courts should be encouraged to divert offenders with alcohol related problems who have committed non-violent offences into treatment programmes or education schemes in the community
Enver Solomon, author of Alcohol and re-offending – who cares? and PRT’s policy officer, said:

“Prisons, particularly young offender institutions, are flooded with prisoners with alcohol problems. It is a failure on the part of the Prison Service that so little has been done to change their behaviour. In most cases they will leave prison unchallenged and unchanged. Access to alcohol treatment is not a luxury it is a necessary step to prevent further offending and more victims.”

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“We are used to hearing about drug-induced crime but it is alcohol which fuels violence, public disorder and road traffic accidents. Far more could, and should be done, by the NHS and the criminal justice system to reduce hazardous drinking.”