Experimental education programmes for binge drinking offenders
Binge drinkers arrested for alcohol-related offences in four areas across the country may be compelled by police ‘to face up to the consequences of their drinking after they have been arrested’, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has announced. Arrest referral will make no difference to whether or not someone is charged with committing an offence, but it is hoped that getting advice about their drinking might stop someone offending in the future.
The Home Office has provided £330,000 of funding to Drug and Alcohol Action Teams in Manchester, Liverpool, Cheshire and Ealing to pilot Alcohol Arrest Referral Projects (AARP) until March 2008. In Liverpool, offenders will be required to pay £30 each towards the cost of the counselling which will be ploughed back into the scheme. If they prove successful, further funding will be available until October 2008.
The pilot schemes will be used to establish whether brief interventions reduce offending among those arrested for alcohol related offences, to investigate how referral schemes can be established to provide appropriate and effective interventions in a costefficient manner, and to increase the number of conditional cautions that have alcohol referral attendance as a condition.
A typical alcohol referral process might involve the following:
- An adult has been binge drinking and commits criminal damage. They are arrested and taken into custody.
- Police in the custody suite judge that alcohol played a part in the fact that the person committed the offence, and that they might benefit from advice about safer drinking.
- A resident alcohol specialist gives the person advice about unit strengths, the effects of alcohol on the body, and strategies for reducing the risk of offending – and they could be made to pay towards taking responsibility for their actions.
- Those with more complex alcohol misuse problems, and who are given a conditional caution, can be referred to more in-depth advice sessions. If they do not attend these advice sessions, they can be prosecuted for the original offence.
The Home Office says that where similar schemes have operated in Gloucestershire and Dudley, police have reported significant reductions in re-offending. In the former, reoffending among those who had attended two advice sessions approximately halved after twelve months.
The Alcohol Arrest Referral Scheme, a partnership between Gloucestershire Drug and Alcohol Service and Gloucestershire Constabulary was established in 1999. The scheme was the first of its type in the country aimed at reducing offending related to alcohol.
The Dudley Borough Alcohol Arrest Referral Scheme, developed by the Dudley Community Safety Partnership with the support of Dudley Health Authority, DudleyMBC, West Midlands Police and alcohol charity Aquarius started on 8 September 2001.
The four new pilot schemes will build on that work and provide an opportunity to collect detailed evidence about how these interventions combat alcohol-related crime and disorder. At the same time they will help to establish a blueprint of best practice for others to follow.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: “We are determined to break the link between drunkenness and anti-social behaviour. People need to face up to the damage that excessive drinking can do to themselves and those around them. These pilots will complement powers already available to the police to tackle alcohol related disorder, including on-the-spot fines, confiscating alcohol in public places and closing down premises that flout the law.“