Prisoners: Alcoholism

(asked on 23rd November 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of prisoners are identified as having an alcoholic disorder.


Answered by
 Portrait
Ben Gummer
This question was answered on 1st December 2015

According to the most recent centrally collected data published in 2013, (the Ministry of Justice Surveying Prisoner Crime Reduction data collection of prisoners sentenced to between one month and four years in 2005 and 2006 in England and Wales), 32% of male and female prisoners who reported drinking in the four weeks before custody said they drank on a daily basis.


Prisoners who consumed alcohol at any stage in the four weeks prior to custody consumed a median of 12 units, which is indicative of binge drinking, according to NHS Choices. Using this measure, 63% of prisoners who drank alcohol in the four weeks before custody would be classified as binge drinkers.


The 2013 report, Gender differences in substance misuse and mental health amongst prisoners Results from the Surveying Prisoner Crime Reduction (SPCR) longitudinal cohort study of prisoners, is available from the following link:


https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/220060/gender-substance-misuse-mental-health-prisoners.pdf

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