NCJ Number
161427
Date Published
1996
Length
57 pages
Annotation
This is an evaluation of an early intervention project for arrestees with alcohol and drug problems.
Abstract
Since 1990 the Home Office Drugs Prevention Initiative has been piloting a community-based approach to drugs prevention. Small teams work with communities in their resistance to drug misuse; the projects draw help and support from local business people, voluntary workers and a wide range of statutory and non-statutory organizations. Research reported in this document was undertaken to describe and evaluate Get It While You Can (GIWYC), an arrest referral scheme for substance-abusing offenders in Brighton. Workers with the project made contact with drug- and alcohol-using offenders in order to assess their needs and refer them to appropriate services. The evidence from this evaluation suggests that the impact of GIWYC was considerable. All major stakeholders - police, local drug and alcohol agencies, court professionals, and clients - agreed that the scheme had helped to put a substantial number of substance-abusing offenders in touch with services offering assistance. A key component in ensuring that clients took up treatment was the level and nature of support provided by GIWYC workers, making it useful to term GIWYC a supported placement service rather than an arrest referral scheme. Figures, references