Alcohol and Offenders Conference

NHS Health Scotland hosted an Alcohol and Offenders Conference in February 2011.The primary purpose of the conference was to announce the findings of three pieces of research:
Prison Health Needs Assessment for Alcohol Problems
Community Justice Alcohol Interventions
Criminal Justice Alcohol Brief Interventions Pilot

The research reports and presentations can be downloaded from http://www.healthscotland.com/topics/health/alcohol/offenders.aspx However some of the key findings included:

The high prevalence of alcohol misuse amongst offenders and the impact on their offending behaviour and the resultant costs to their victims and wider society.
The lack of research and evaluation evidence to support the effectiveness of the wide range of services and interventions being delivered to address alcohol misuse by offenders.
Alcohol Brief Interventions (ABIs) are used widely within health settings. A number of pilots are underway to test their effectiveness in criminal justice settings and consider issues such as timing of the ABI etc.

South West Scotland CJA hosted a stall at the conference providing an opportunity to engage with a number of delegates and to provide information about our recent work on alcohol and offending as well as the work of SWSCJA more generally.