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Prisons: Alcoholic Drinks

Volume 485: debated on Thursday 11 December 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners were engaged in alcohol-related intervention programmes in 2007-08, broken down by method of intervention. (241081)

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) does not collate figures centrally on the number of prisoners accessing services specifically aimed at their alcohol misuse.

A range of interventions are available in prisons to support those with an alcohol problem:

clinical services—alcohol detoxification is available in all local and remand prisons;

where alcohol is part of a wider substance misuse problem, the full range of drug interventions are available;

a number of prisons run alcohol awareness courses;

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) run groups in around 67 per cent. of prisons;

some offending behaviour programmes address the underlying factors which occur in alcohol related crime;

an accredited 12-step alcohol programme is being run at HMP Bullingdon;

a further four more intensive interventions Cognitive Behavioural Alcohol Programmes are being piloted at HMP Hull, Forest Bank, Glen Parva and Chelmsford;

for those prisons(ers) involved in the roll-out of the Integrated Drug Treatment System (IDTS) a 90 minute alcohol awareness session has been developed; and

the young persons substance misuse service for 16 to 18-year-old prisoners has a particular focus on alcohol.