NCJ Number
101572
Date Published
1985
Length
182 pages
Annotation
This report profiles five British detoxification centers, describes the detoxification process and client characteristics, addresses special issues in center operations, and offers recommendations.
Abstract
The five centers are at Leeds, Manchester, Oxford, Tower Hamlets, and Portsmouth. The centers are an experimental effort to deal with public drunkenness through medical services rather than criminal justice processing. The profiles of each center, based on 1977 data, outline their goals, referral sources, admission procedures, medical care, social work programs, patient activities, discharge, referral to other agencies, and associated local agencies for problem drinkers and the single homeless. Procedures associated with the detoxification process are compared for the centers. Special issues reviewed include the apprehension and diversion of habitual drunkenness offenders, staff morale and management, and cooperation with other agencies. Notable findings are that the centers did not reduce the number of persons before the courts for drunkenness and that the centers were distinctly different in their operations, so that a prototype operation was not evident. The report concludes the centers provide a framework for further experimentation in alternatives to criminal justice processing for intoxicated persons. Appendixes contain British drunkenness laws, a description of the research program, steps in the program's planning and implementation, and recommendations for detoxification services in the 1971 Weiler Report. 26-item bibliography and subject index.