Alcohol Problems Amongst Prisoners
| Date | 01 December 1996 |
| Published date | 01 December 1996 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059604300411 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
219
convicted
of
car
crime
undertook
a
group
work
programme
of
six
weekly
two-hour
sessions,
looking
at:
the
laws
of
the
road,
alcohol
and
driving,
accidents,
victims
of
car
crime,
the
role
of
the
police
and
the
ambulance
service.
The
questionnaire
was
completed
before
the
first
session
and
again
after
the
final
session.
Full
results
were
obtained
from
ten
participants.
Results
were
compared
with
returns
from
a
control
group
of
’normal’
young
drivers
of
the
same
age.
Initial
Attitudes
The
initial
attitudes
of
group
members
were
significantly
more
negative
than
those
of
the
’normal’
group
as
regards
risk
taking,
other
road
users
and
drink
driving,
though
there
was
no
significant
difference
in
regard
to
road
traffic
laws,
theft
of
cars
or
road
accidents.
On
Completion
of
Course
After
their
programme,
the
group
members
were
significantly
more
positive
in
their
attitudes
towards
car
driving
and
offending.
More
surprisingly,
they
had
become
more
positive
(ie
law
abiding,
careful,
respectful
of
others
etc)
than
the
’normal’
group.
This
small
monitoring
initiative
thus
demonstrates
that
attitude
change
can
be
achieved
through
a
relatively
brief
initiative.
The
next
step
is
to
assess
whether
attitudes
remain
positive
and
whether
the
change
leads
to
a
reduction
in
the
frequency/severity
of
offending.
Alcohol
Problems
Amongst
Prisoners
Jan
Keene
of
the
University
of
East
Anglia
School
of
Social
Work
reports
a
remand
prisoner
audit.
Though
the
high
proportion
of
prisoners
with
alcohol
problems
is
well
documented,
discussions
about
alcohol-
related
offending
and
the
nature
of
those
problems
are
often
somewhat
imprecise.
For
example,
professionals
are
frequently
unclear
whether
offending
is
related
to
intoxication
or
to
full
blown
alcohol
dependency.
It
may
well
be
that
this
uncertainty
is
partially
due
to
an
underlying
confusion
of
three
distinct
types
of
alcohol
problem;
alcohol
dependency,
harmful
use
and
risky
use.
In
order
to
gain
a
more
precise
understanding
of
prisoners’
alcohol
problems,
190
remand
prisoners
were
screened
on
reception
at
a
local
prison,
using
the
AUDIT
questionnaire.
The
group
was
time
sampled by
days
to
ensure
a
random
selection
from
the
reception
population’.
AUDIT
(the
Alcohol
Use
Disorders
Identification
Test)
is
a
ten
item
questionnaire
designed
by
the
World
Health
Organisation2
to
screen
alcohol
problems
in
a
primary
health
care
setting.
Though
AUDIT
was
originally
designed
with
a
cut-off
positive
score
of
11
(out
of
a
possible
40’),
later
researchers
have
suggested
that
a
lower
cut-off
point
of
eight
is
more
useful,
being
predictive
of
future
alcohol
problems4.
Out
of
190
respondents,
nearly
two-thirds
(61%)
scored
positive
for
alcohol
problems
using
the
higher
cut-off
point
while
almost
three-quarters
(72.6%)
scored
positive
using
the
lower
cut-off
point.
AUDIT
uses
three
categories
of
question
to
identify
different
kinds
of
problematic
alcohol
use:
Hazardous:
an
established
pattern
of
use
associated
with
social
disapproval
and
a
high
risk
of
future
damage
but
which
has
not
yet
resulted
in
significant
medical
or
psychiatric
effect.
Dependent:
physical
and
psychological
dependency
on
alcohol.
Harmful:
a
pattern
of
use
which
causes
actual
physical
or
mental
damage
to
health.
The
sample
was
categorised
by
calculating
respondents’
scores
for
each
of
the
three
categories
(weighted)
and
then
classifying
them
according
to
the
highest
scoring
category,
controlling
for
variation
of
numbers
in
each
category,
with
the
results
shown
in
the
Table.
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