Introduction
We know that alcohol misuse and offending are linked. Victims of violent crime are regularly asked in the England and Wales Crime Survey what part do they think alcohol played in the offense they suffered and in the most recent published survey in 47% of these cases the victim believed the offender(s) to be under the influence of alcohol.
Offenders themselves recognize alcohol to be an issue for them; 37% of male prisoners and 46% of women prisoners perceive their drinking to be a big problem . And they know that drinking makes their offending worse; 72% of men and 58% of women say that drinking contributed to their offending behavior.
Unfortunately the good work that prisons do in helping offenders address their drinking problems lead to little behaviour change when offenders are released, or at least lead little to improved recidivism rates. Those with a significant pre custody alcohol drink problem who participate in custodial detoxification programmes, accredited alcohol programmes (whether in or out of prison) or other alcohol interventions have the same recidivism rates as non participants with the same alcohol problems.
Offenders who enter prison with alcohol dependency may leave physically detoxified but the good intentions they may have on leaving (possibly even briefly) cannot withstand it seems the pull of their own impulses and the peer pressure to which they may be subjected. However what we also know is that even recidivist offenders want to stop. When asked in the survey referred to in footnote 4 97% said that they wanted to give up offending.
What may assist offenders bridge the gap between the routine, discipline and sobriety brought to them in prison and the freedom they have to make bad decisions on release is an extrinsic motivator that helps them hold onto good habits and resist anti social behaviour and anti social accomplices.
The Potential Benefits of Alcohol Monitoring
Offenders on completing a sentence that lasts for several months or years need to become reacclimatised to world into which they are to be released. Moving from dependency to freedom, albeit under licence tests their decision making and their ability to make good life choices. They also need to get reacquainted with their families. Release on Temporary Licence (RoTL) offers prisoners an opportunity to reintegrate with the world in which they will soon be free.
While on temporary licence they have to abstain from alcohol and drugs, just as if they were still inside the prison. Whether or not they abide by these instructions is not really known. If they were to return intoxicated, of course the prison would know, but otherwise not.
The public disquiet that arose in the summer of 2014 in the case of Michael Wheatley, an offender who absconded while on temporary licence, has led the Ministry of Justice to evaluate a number of alterations to the RoTL regime. A programme that tests the ability of RoTL prisoners to comply with their licence conditions which also gives the Prison service better information about an offender’s propensity to go off track could add considerably to our knowledge of what could work long term in reducing reoffending.
As well as offering intelligence benefits to the Prison Service it offers prisoners benefits as well. Those that can demonstrate compliance and sobriety can be rewarded with further RoTLs. They can also start to build a “sobriety CV”, which could help in Family Court and Child Custody proceedings if their drinking is a matter that leads to safeguarding concerns. If it keeps them sober it can also help them begin to develop pro social habits and help them stay away from people and places that get them into trouble. The likelihood that breaches of their licence will lead to swift and certain negative consequences may have the effect of deterring them from breaching their licence. Two prominent findings from criminological research are that punishment certainty is far more consistently found to deter crime than punishment severity , and furthermore that the speed at which the punishment is meted out also contributes to its deterrent effect . This scheme will lead to certainty and speed of detection
The Sure Start In HOM Breathalyser
This is a portable breathalyser that is connected to the mains, is programmed to store breath sample data and while receiving the breath samples to take a photograph of the donor. The data provided by the donor (breath sample and photograph) is stored in the device and on return to the device’s base ( in this case the prisons) is downloaded, analysed and produced in PDF format as a report within a few hours.
The report will tell the recipient whether the prisoner has provided the samples required , what the alcohol reading is for each sample and will provide the accompanying photograph for each supplied sample. This data will give the prisons enough information to be certain as to whether the RoTL prisoners complied with their licence.
The Pilot
For a period of 6 months Brixton and Send prisons will identify 10 RoTL prisoners each week and will supply them with a Sure Start portable breathalyser. These will only be supplied to those who are away from the prison for at least one night. They will be instructed to take the device to their home, plug it in and provide say three breath samples a day at times determined by the Governors. The devices will be programmed to this effect. On return to the Prison they will bring the devices back and the data will be downloaded. The numbers of prisoners in the pilot will quickly enable deductions to be drawn as to its effectiveness, and progress can be planned.
Practical Issues
There are a number of practical issues for the prisons to work through
We know that alcohol misuse and offending are linked. Victims of violent crime are regularly asked in the England and Wales Crime Survey what part do they think alcohol played in the offense they suffered and in the most recent published survey in 47% of these cases the victim believed the offender(s) to be under the influence of alcohol.
Offenders themselves recognize alcohol to be an issue for them; 37% of male prisoners and 46% of women prisoners perceive their drinking to be a big problem . And they know that drinking makes their offending worse; 72% of men and 58% of women say that drinking contributed to their offending behavior.
Unfortunately the good work that prisons do in helping offenders address their drinking problems lead to little behaviour change when offenders are released, or at least lead little to improved recidivism rates. Those with a significant pre custody alcohol drink problem who participate in custodial detoxification programmes, accredited alcohol programmes (whether in or out of prison) or other alcohol interventions have the same recidivism rates as non participants with the same alcohol problems.
Offenders who enter prison with alcohol dependency may leave physically detoxified but the good intentions they may have on leaving (possibly even briefly) cannot withstand it seems the pull of their own impulses and the peer pressure to which they may be subjected. However what we also know is that even recidivist offenders want to stop. When asked in the survey referred to in footnote 4 97% said that they wanted to give up offending.
What may assist offenders bridge the gap between the routine, discipline and sobriety brought to them in prison and the freedom they have to make bad decisions on release is an extrinsic motivator that helps them hold onto good habits and resist anti social behaviour and anti social accomplices.
The Potential Benefits of Alcohol Monitoring
Offenders on completing a sentence that lasts for several months or years need to become reacclimatised to world into which they are to be released. Moving from dependency to freedom, albeit under licence tests their decision making and their ability to make good life choices. They also need to get reacquainted with their families. Release on Temporary Licence (RoTL) offers prisoners an opportunity to reintegrate with the world in which they will soon be free.
While on temporary licence they have to abstain from alcohol and drugs, just as if they were still inside the prison. Whether or not they abide by these instructions is not really known. If they were to return intoxicated, of course the prison would know, but otherwise not.
The public disquiet that arose in the summer of 2014 in the case of Michael Wheatley, an offender who absconded while on temporary licence, has led the Ministry of Justice to evaluate a number of alterations to the RoTL regime. A programme that tests the ability of RoTL prisoners to comply with their licence conditions which also gives the Prison service better information about an offender’s propensity to go off track could add considerably to our knowledge of what could work long term in reducing reoffending.
As well as offering intelligence benefits to the Prison Service it offers prisoners benefits as well. Those that can demonstrate compliance and sobriety can be rewarded with further RoTLs. They can also start to build a “sobriety CV”, which could help in Family Court and Child Custody proceedings if their drinking is a matter that leads to safeguarding concerns. If it keeps them sober it can also help them begin to develop pro social habits and help them stay away from people and places that get them into trouble. The likelihood that breaches of their licence will lead to swift and certain negative consequences may have the effect of deterring them from breaching their licence. Two prominent findings from criminological research are that punishment certainty is far more consistently found to deter crime than punishment severity , and furthermore that the speed at which the punishment is meted out also contributes to its deterrent effect . This scheme will lead to certainty and speed of detection
The Sure Start In HOM Breathalyser
This is a portable breathalyser that is connected to the mains, is programmed to store breath sample data and while receiving the breath samples to take a photograph of the donor. The data provided by the donor (breath sample and photograph) is stored in the device and on return to the device’s base ( in this case the prisons) is downloaded, analysed and produced in PDF format as a report within a few hours.
The report will tell the recipient whether the prisoner has provided the samples required , what the alcohol reading is for each sample and will provide the accompanying photograph for each supplied sample. This data will give the prisons enough information to be certain as to whether the RoTL prisoners complied with their licence.
The Pilot
For a period of 6 months Brixton and Send prisons will identify 10 RoTL prisoners each week and will supply them with a Sure Start portable breathalyser. These will only be supplied to those who are away from the prison for at least one night. They will be instructed to take the device to their home, plug it in and provide say three breath samples a day at times determined by the Governors. The devices will be programmed to this effect. On return to the Prison they will bring the devices back and the data will be downloaded. The numbers of prisoners in the pilot will quickly enable deductions to be drawn as to its effectiveness, and progress can be planned.
Practical Issues
There are a number of practical issues for the prisons to work through
- RAPT have expressed enthusiasm in being involved in this pilot. There may be additional workload for them in the event of a high failure rate. (In fact the US experience of offenders using these devices , albeit in a different regime , is that compliance is high)
- Some criteria for selection need to be drawn up and ideally some lessons learned from success and failure.
- The consequence of failed tests, non tests and marginal failures will need to be worked through and a documented approach developed.
- The devices on arriving in the UK will need to be calibrated ; a gas sample with a known alcohol concentration needs to be passed through the devices to make sure that they provide an accurate reading.
- A camera (built into the Smart Start device) is a B list object and needs authorization to be brought into a prison.
- A photograph is personal data and as the analysis and downloading of the data will require it to be emailed to Sure Starts Servers, which are in the USA. Principle 8 (6) of the Data Protection Act 1998 (sending personal data outside the European Economic Area) requires Smart Start to certify that they have signed up to the US Department of Commerce Safe Harbor Scheme?
- To download the data, access to internet is required. This could be done in one of a number of ways depending on internet availability in the prison.
- o The devices could be downloaded directly in the prisons – provided there is internet access
- o The data could be downloaded at the prisons onto a laptop and the lap top taken from the prison, and then connected to the internet
- o The devices could be collected from the prisons and taken to an internet enabled site and the data downloaded before returning the devices to the prison
- The devices are not normally used in the way proposed – namely multiple donors using them in series with small gaps between usages. Generally they are used for several weeks by one offender and are programmed individually with the offender’s name and with bespoke requirements as to when a sample is required. This would be too staff intensive for this pilot and therefore expensive. So in this instance the devices will all be programmed to receive samples at the same time and will be known as device 1 device 2 and so on. The prisons will have to keep a register of which device is allocated to which prisoner and triangulate their data with the analysis data. There will also be a photograph as well which should help confirm who was using it.
- Some prison staff may have to receive some training in explaining the devices and assisting with data collection.
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