Acknowledging the many missed opportunities there are to put in place treatment and support for people with alcohol problems caught up in the justice system, MSPs will today debate potential solutions outlined by Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP).
The SHAAP report, entitled Alcohol (In)justice: Position on people with an alcohol use disorder in the justice system, highlights the deep inequalities within Scotland’s criminal justice system by showing that people with an alcohol use disorder are greatly overrepresented in criminal justice settings.
Drawing on a range of sources, key points in the report include:
- Almost two thirds (63%) of people in prison have an alcohol use disorder, with almost half of those (31%) possibly dependent on alcohol. [1] This compares to 22% of the population as a whole having alcohol use disorder and around 1% thought to be dependent. [2]
- Risk of death from alcohol causes is three times higher in men and nine times higher for women who have been in prison than for the general population. [3]
- 25% of people in Scottish prisons are care-experienced [4]
- 47% have experienced physical abuse in childhood [4]
- Around a third (34%) of people lived with someone who was a problematic drinker during childhood. [4]
- The 2019 Scottish Prisoner Survey showed only 22% of participants reported that they had the chance to receive treatment for an alcohol use disorder during their sentence. [4]
- The overall estimate for the cost of alcohol-specific and alcohol-related offences is between £462.5 million and £991.7 million, with a mid-point of £727.1 million. (These figures have not been re-estimated since 2007/8 and therefore the true current figure is likely much higher). [5]
Coming into contact with the justice system provides an opportunity to identify people with alcohol use disorders and then offer treatment and support. This opportunity should be used to improve outcomes not only for the people concerned, but for their families, communities and for the wider justice and health systems.
Yet people in the system are not always likely to get the support they need. Of the over 12,000 community payback orders imposed in 2021-22, only 1% received alcohol treatment as part of the order. [6]
Dr Lesley Graham, SHAAP Steering Group member and expert in public health and justice said:
“People with alcohol problems are overrepresented in the justice system and despite all the policies and frameworks in place, it can be difficult for people to get the help they need.
“While there are some examples of effective practice – such as Glasgow’s Alcohol Court – this needs to happen as a matter of course, throughout the entire system from initial police contact through to courts, community justice, prisons and beyond and should not depend on where a person happens to live.
“A nationally consistent approach would reduce alcohol harms but also lower the risk of reoffending, given 37% of violent crime is alcohol-related.”
Victoria Guthrie, Improvement Lead at Community Justice Scotland, said:
“The prevalence of problem drinking is far higher among those in contact with the justice system than the general population. Community justice represents an opportunity to connect people whose offending is linked to their alcohol use with access to treatment and support in the communities they are from. But for this to work, we need different parts of the system to speak to each other.
“The fact that only 1% of community payback orders in 2023-24 included alcohol treatment shows how far we have to go to ensure that services are joined up and people are able to access treatment through contact with the justice system.”
Dr Graham continued:
“We now need to see national leadership on this. The Scottish Government must publish clear, enforceable standards which set out how people with alcohol problems should be supported at each step of their journey through the criminal justice system, and more importantly must hold themselves, justice partners and alcohol and drugs partnerships to account.”
Other sources of data quoted in the press release are as follows:
[1] https://www.gov.scot/publications/understanding-substance-use-wider-support-needs-scotlands-prison-population/
[2] https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2023/12/scottish-health-survey-2022-volume-1-main-report/documents/scottish-health-survey-2022-main-report/scottish-health-survey-2022-main-report/govscot%3Adocument/scottish-health-survey-2022-main-report.pdf
[3] https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-11-865
[4] https://www.sps.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2024-02/17thPrisonSurvey_2019_Research.pdf
[5] The Societal Cost of Alcohol Misuse in Scotland for 2007
[6] https://communityjustice.scot/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/CPO-Annual-Report-2021-22.pdf