Sobering up

Since their inception in the mid-1980s, there has been a rapid increase in the number of arrest referral schemes implemented in custody suites across the United Kingdom. These schemes have generally been focused upon detainees with drug-related problems and their key aims have been to provide education and treatment for detainees immediately after arrest as this is viewed as the time when the subject will be most contemplative of and receptive to change. It is becoming recognized that the custody suite may also be an appropriate setting for tackling alcohol-related problems through both ‘arrest referral’ and ‘brief intervention’. The article outlines the principles that lie behind arrest referral and brief intervention and it presents a case study of a scheme that provided such treatment for detainees arrested for alcohol-related/specific incidents. Here the background to the initiative in question and the key data collected as part of an independent evaluation are presented. Consideration also is given throughout the article to problems encountered in implementing and evaluating the scheme and it is hoped that some of these will serve as lessons for future research.