ALCOHOL AND CRIME FACTS:

      On an average day an estimated 5.3 million convicted offenders are under the supervision of criminal justice authorities. Nearly 40% of these offenders, about 2 million, had been using alcohol at the time of the offense for which they were convicted.

      About 6 in 10 convicted jail inmates said that they had been drinking on a regular basis during the year before the offense for which they were serving time. Nearly 2 out of 3 of these inmates, regardless of whether they drank daily or less often, reported having previously been in a treatment program for an alcohol dependency problem.

      About a quarter of the women on probation nationwide were drinking at the time of their offense compared to more than 40% of male probationers.  For those convicted of public-order crimes, nearly two-thirds of women and three-quarters of men had been drinking at the time of the offense.

      For more than 4 in 10 convicted murderers being held either in jail or in State prison, alcohol use is reported to have been a factor in the crime.

      Nearly half of those convicted of assault and sentenced to probation had been drinking when the offense occurred.

      About 3 million violent crimes occur each year in which victims perceive the offender to have been drinking at the time of the offense. Among those victims who provided information about the offender's use of alcohol, about 35 percent of the victimizations involved an offender who had been drinking. About two-thirds of the alcohol-involved crimes were characterized as simple assaults.

      Two-thirds of victims who suffered violence by an intimate (a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend) reported that alcohol had been a factor. Among spouse victims, 3 out of 4 incidents were reported to have involved an offender who had been drinking. By contrast, an estimated 31 percent of stranger victimizations where the victim could determine the absence or presence of alcohol were perceived to be alcohol-related.

     There is some variation in the percentage of offenders who had been using alcohol at the time of the offense across different correctional statuses: 40 percent of both jail inmates and probationers, 32 percent of State prisoners, and 29 percent of parolees.

      Alcohol use at the time of the offense was commonly found among those convicted of public-order crimes, a type of offense most highly represented among those on probation and in jail. Among violent offenders, 41 percent of probationers, 41 percent of those in local jails, 38 percent of those in State prisons, and 20 percent of those in Federal prisons were estimated to have been drinking when they committed the crime.

ALCOHOL TREATMENT:

      More than 700,000 Americans receive alcoholism treatment on any given day.  However, the techniques of alcoholism therapy have traditionally been based on clinical experience and intuition, with little rigorous validation of their effectiveness.  Over the past 20 years, modern methods of evaluating medical therapies have been increasingly applied to alcoholism treatment. These methods include the use of control groups for comparison purposes, random assignment of study participants to different treatment groups and, to the greatest extent possible, follow up of  patients.

      Self-help groups are the most commonly sought source of help for alcohol-related problems.  Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), one of the most commonly known self-help groups, outlines 12 consecutive activities, or steps, that alcoholics should achieve during the recovery process.  Alcoholics can become involved with AA before entering professional treatment, as a part of it, or as aftercare following professional treatment.  

      The beneficial effects of AA may be attributable in part to the replacement of the participant's social network of drinking friends with a fellowship of AA members who can provide motivation and support for maintaining abstinence.  In addition, AA's approach often results in the development of coping skills, many of which are similar to those taught in more structured psychosocial treatment settings, thereby leading to reductions in alcohol consumption.  

      Motivational enhancement therapy (MET) begins with the assumption that the responsibility and capacity for change lie within the client.  The therapist begins by providing individualized feedback about the effects of the patient's drinking.  Working closely together, therapist and patient explore the benefits of abstinence, review treatment options, and design a plan to implement treatment goals. Analysis suggests that MET may be one of the most cost-effective of available treatment methods.  In one study, the motivational interviewing technique-a key component of MET-was shown to overcome patients' reluctance to enter treatment more effectively than did conventional techniques.

      Evidence indicates that involvement of a nonalcoholic spouse in a treatment program can improve patient participation rates and increase the likelihood that the patient will alter drinking behavior after treatment ends.

      There are various approaches to marital family therapy.  Behavioral-marital therapy (BMT) combines a focus on drinking with efforts to strengthen the marital relationship through shared activities and the teaching of communication and conflict evaluation skills.  Among alcoholics with severe marital and drinking problems, the combination approach produces improved marital relations and higher abstinence rates.

      Many persons with alcohol-related problems receive counseling from primary care physicians or nursing staff in the context of five or fewer standard office visits.  Such treatment, known as brief intervention, generally consists of straightforward information on the negative consequences of alcohol consumption along with practical advice on strategies and community resources to achieve moderation or abstinence.  Two controlled trials in the United States and Canada demonstrated that this approach reduced drinking, alcohol-related problems, and patients' use of health care services.  Most brief interventions are designed to help those at risk for developing alcohol-related problems to reduce their alcohol consumption. Alcohol-dependent patients should be ordered or encouraged to enter specialized treatment with the goal of complete abstinence.       

      Research suggests that some medications may be more effective for certain types of alcoholics. For example, when ondansetron (Zofran^®) was combined with psychotherapy, alcoholics who had begun drinking heavily before age 25 (i.e., early-onset alcoholics) decreased their alcohol consumption and increased their number of abstinent days, but later onset alcoholics did not.  Sertraline (Zoloft^®), in contrast, appears to reduce drinking in late-onset, but not early-onset, alcoholics. However, fluoxetine (Prozac^®), a medication related to sertraline, has not been found to be effective in late-onset alcoholism.

CONCLUSION:

      In conclusion, research supports the concept of using medications in combination with therapy for treatment of alcohol abuse and alcoholism. It is vital for successful treatment of alcoholism to identify those patients most likely to benefit from such an approach, to determine the most appropriate medications for different patient types, to establish optimal dosages, and to develop strategies for enhancing patient compliance with medication regimens.  Medication, when used in conjunction with behavioral therapies, improves the chance for recovery-and the lives-of those who suffer from alcohol abuse and dependence. 

      In return for treating alcoholism for what it is, society will benefit from lower crime rates along with reducing the ever increasing taxpayer expense of prosecution and incarceration of those convicted of alcohol related or incited offenses.

       VOTE

   GENERAL ELECTION ON NOVEMBER 4TH, 2008.

     "If elected your next district judge, I promise to implement strict alcohol/drug treatment in every case where these substances appear to be involved, and counseling where domestic violence is at issue, all at the expense of the accused wrongdoer.

     At arraignments in criminal cases as a condition of bond I will order immediate substance abuse and/or anger management counseling coupled with day-reporting to law enforcment.

     There is absolutely no reason to wait until a conviction to order this relief. 

     Guilty of a crime or not the individuals accused of committing  alcohol and/or domestic violence related crimes, their families and significant others, law enforcement and society in general would all benefit from immediate court ordered intervention.  Bond release orders offer the Court the opportunity to effectively intervene in a positive fashion."