John Podmore worked in the prison service for 25 years and governed three prisons – Belmarsh, Swaleside and Brixton.
Now professor of applied social sciences at the University of Durham, he says prisoners will often claim: “I don’t have a drink problem, it’s just I am always drunk when I commit offences.”
While those who arrive in prison with severe alcohol problems will be given appropriate treatment, what is being done to deal with the underlying role drink plays in people ending up behind bars?
A new surveyhas been carried out by a commission set up by the UK’s leading addiction charity, Addaction.
Of the prisoners surveyed, 70% said they had been drinking when they committed the offence for which they were incarcerated.
Only half of those prisoners recognised their drinking as a problem. 76% were aware of alcohol-related support within the prison itself, only 40% had been informed about support available upon release.
Podmore is a member of
Addaction’s Alcohol and Crime Commission, which commissioned the survey. A lack of support on release means that many return to a life of crime with alcohol again playing a key part.
“Throughout my time as prison governor, I saw far too many people who – with the right support – would not have been inside,” he explains.
“We are not getting to grips with underlying behaviours on the back of alcohol. We will deal with alcohol dependence and addiction, but we are not looking at behaviour - and the law does not see alcohol as an excuse,” explains Podmore.
“If you kill someone when drunk it is still murder.”
He adds: “The training for drug workers is around ‘traditional’ drugs and little awareness on how alcohol may feature in people’s behaviour. We are not seeing it as a problem. Talking to prisoners, police and families, we know that alcohol services are ‘Cinderella services’.”
Podmore says even in the House of Commons, MPs have shown “underlying behaviours” when they have been drinking that have landed some in a jail cell.
“It is not just in the Commons that cheap alcohol is accepted, but across our culture,” he says.
“In terms of offenders, we need more awareness, more training and more alcohol-specific services.
“We have a new commissioning framework with reduced probation and new ‘community rehabilitation companies’ - we must not forget alcohol in all this. We should be concerned about how legal and illegal drugs not just affect health but behaviour.”
Podmore says the true extent of this problem needs to be properly researched.
“A thorough and alcohol-specific needs analysis should be carried out into alcohol misuse among the prison population,” he says.
“This needs analysis should then inform the commissioning of services both in prison and on release and be integral to the contracts drawn up for the new community rehabilitation companies.
“All through-the-gate services should prioritise community-based treatment that help people recover fully in their own communities as well as working to reduce the stigma faced by ex-prisoners and people who have beaten alcohol problems.”
Podmore says that by and large, prisoners undergo forced abstinence from alcohol while in jail, which is a good opportunity to explore the link between alcohol and offending.
“Literally and metaphorically you have a captive audience,” he explains.
“A lot of them are keen to deal with their problems. It is incumbent on the prison system to rehabilitate them and send them back in to society better than when they went in. We have an opportunity to find out more about this issue.”
The
Addactioncommission has made a number of key recommendations that the UK Prison Service should implement as a matter of urgency.
Alcohol-treatment services for prisoners should form a key part of any prison rehabilitation, and that this must include continuing support for prisoners as they reintegrate into the community.
All frontline staff in UK prisons – from offender managers to peer support workers and mentors – should get expert alcohol awareness training and be able to identify problematic behaviour relating to someone’s drinking.
Without this, the commission says, offenders’ patterns of alcohol-related offending will continue unchecked.
There should also be support services specifically designed for women prisoners.
“These are all important and tangible measures, says Podmore.
“And if we implement them, I’ve absolutely no doubt that we’ll make a huge dent in the rates of reoffending.”