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u.s. DePartment of Justice 

Bureau of Justice Statistics 

Prisoners and Alcohol 

Almost a third of all inmates of State 

prisons in 1979 said they had drunk very 

heavily just before they committed the 

offense for which they were convicted. 

Twenty percent of the inmates said that they 

drank very heavily every day the entire year 

before they entered prison. About 16% had 

at some time been enrolled in an alcohol 

treatment program. Habitual offenders and 

persons convicted of assault, burglary, and 

rape were more likely to be very heavy 

drinkers than other prisoners. Whites, 

American Indians, and inmates 18 to 25 were 

especially likely to be very heavy drinkers. 

inmate drinking habits: (1) How often they 

drank during the year preceding their 

incarceration. (2) How much they usually 

drank. (3) Their own assessment of their 

degree of intoxication when they had finished 

drinking. Each drinker was asked to 

charll.cterize himself as "relatively sober," 

"fr ·'.ng good," "pretty loaded," or "very 

January 1983 

This is the third in a series of 

bulletins based on the 1979 Survey of 

Inmates of State Correctional 

Facilities. A bulletin on inmate IJse 

of drugs is in preparation and otherl! are planned for the future. PUblic- use computer-readable data tapes 

These findings are based on the 1979 

Survey of Inmates of State Correctional 

FaCil~ties conducted in November of that 

year. The surveyed inmates were 

questioned about their drinking habits during 

the year before they went to prison and 

about drinking they may have done just prior 

to the offense that sent them there. 

Measures of drinking 

Three measures were used to assess 

IThe survey consisted of personal interViews with a 

stratified random sample of 12,000 inmates in State 

prisons across the Nation. It was conducted for the 

Bureau of Justice Statistics by the Census Bureau. 

dru;, ,," 

To measure the amount consumed, all 

alcoholic beverages were converted to their 

equivalent in pure alcohol (ethanol). The 

group characterized as "very heavy" drinkers 

had consumed 4 ounces of ethB -the 

equivalent of eight cans of bee; _ven 4-

ounce glasses of wine, or nc:ii'!~ 9 ounces of 

80-proof liquor. This level of co.1Sumption 

would almost certainly produce severe 

intoxication if consumed within a limited 

time. Indeed, 65% of all inmatp::i who usually 

consumed at least 4 ounces of ethanol in a typiCal drinking session characterized 

themselves as "pretty loaded" or "very drunk" 

when they stopped. 

Inmates' drinking ¥s. others' 

Information about the general public's 

consumption of such large quantities of 

alcohol is not available. However, it is 

possible to compare prisoners with persons in 

Table 1. Drinking habits of the U.S. population 18 and over and 

of State prison inmates, by age and sex, percent distribution I 

Hen Women 

Average 

of ethanol 

ounces 

InAll as:es ~es 18-34 All as:es ~e8 18-34 In- In- consumed per day2 mates In- General mates General mstes General mates General 

0.0 oz.3 17% 25% 18% 14% 34% 40% 35% 25% 

0.01-0.99 oz:. 36 60 35 69 44 56 42 70 

1.0 or more oz. 47 14 47 17 22 4 23 5 

NOTE: Percentages may not add to totals shown because of rounding. 

1Ages for the ,l(eneral population are shown for 1979 (NIAAA, Alcohol snd Health, 

Ages 1981) • for inmates are shown for the time of admission to prison; 83% of the inmates were admitted in 1976 or later. 2Ethanol is pure alcohol; an ounce is roughly equivalent to 2 12-ounce cans of 

9~roof beer, 1-3/4 4-ounce glasses of 26-proof Wine, or 2 ounces of 80-proof liquor. 

30id not 1rink during the year prior to the current offense or, in the case of the 

general population, the year prior to interview. 

for both the survey and the 

companion 1979 Census of State 

Correctional Facilities are available 

from the Criminal Justice Archives 

and Information Network of the 

Inter-university Consortium for 

Political and Social Research. 

Further information can be obtained 

by writing CJAIN, P.O. Box 1248, 

Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106. 

Benjamin H. Renshaw III 

Acting Director 

the general population who abstain, who 

consume less than an ounce of' e~hanol, and 

who consume an ounce or more. Consuming less than an oune.:! of ethanol is usually 

regarded as moderate drinking. 

Almost half of the inmates-but only a tenth of all persons age 18 and older of the 

general population-drank an average of an 

ounce of ethanol or more daily. In contrast, a sixth of the inmates and a third of the 

general population abstained from all 

alcohol. 

Males, whether in prison or not, were much more likely than their female 

counterparts to drink an ounce or more 

of ethanol (see table 1). At the higher level 

of drinking the difference between the 

inmates and 'the general popUlation was 

greater for women than for men: men in 

prison were roughly three times as likely as 

men in general to consume an ounce or more of ethanol daily. Women in prison were over 

five times more likely than women in general 

to consume that much. The drinking habits 

of inmates and of the g~neral popUlation are about the same for 18- to 34-year-olds (the 

ages of most inmates) as they are for all age 

groups. 

20ne ounce of ethanol is equal to 2 cans of beer, F/2 

glasses of wine, or 2 ounces of 80 proof liquor • 
Habitual drinking patterns 

Roughly a third of the inmates said they 

drank daily during the year beiore prison. A 

third said they drank heavily (4 ounces of 

ethanol or more). A third said they were 

"pretty loaded" or "very drunk" by the time 

they stopped drinking (see table 2). 

Naturally there was quite a bit of overlap 

between these groups: almost two-thirds of 

the daily drinkers were very heavy drinkers. 

Half of the daily drinkers were "pretty 

loaded" or "very drunk" when they finished 

drinking. Two-thirds of the heavy drinkers 

were "pretty loaded" or drunk when they 

finished drinking. 

These findings show an excessi ve preprison involvement with aL!ohol on the part a 

great many inmates. While some persons 

may have inflated the amount of alcohol 

consumed, it seems less likely that they 

exaggerated the frequency of drinking or the 

degree of their intoxication. Even allowing 

for some exaggeration of drinking habits, it 

is clear that alcohol has played a major role 

in the lives of many prison inmates. 

Characteristics of very heavy trinkers 

This role was particularly marked in the 

pre-prison lives of whites and of American 

Indians and Alaskan Natives. Half the whites 

and two of every three of the latter group 

drank very heavily (4 ounces of ethanol or 

Table 2. Drinking pattern of inmatesl 

Characteristic "umber Percent 

Total 274,564 100.0 

Frequency of drinking 

Abstained 49,775 18.1 

Less than once a month 12,186 4.4 

About once a month 8,5.60 3.1 

3 or 4 times a month 12,234 4.5 

1 or 2 times a week 5Q,884 21.8 

3 or 4 times a week 26,886 9.8 

Nearly every day 14,357 5.2 

Every day 89,801 32.7 

Not available 881 0.3 

Amount of alcohol 

consumed 2 

Abstained 49,775 18.1 

Light to heavy 124,404 45.3 

(less than 4 oz. 

of ethanol) 

Very heavy (4 oz. 99,570 36.3 or more of ethanol) 

Not available 815 0.3 

Degree of drunkenness3 

Abstained 49,775 18.1 

Relatively Bober 50,708 18.5 

Fe eli ng good 87,886 32.0 

Pretty loaded 41,135 15.0 

Very drunk 43,986 16.0 

Not available 1,074 0.4 

I NOTE: Detail may not add to totals shown , because of rounding. 

! 1 Drinking experience i8 for the year 

I prior to current offense. 

I ''"""",., .,h.o., (,",. "',.,," consumed during typical drinking session. 

3Self-perception of level of intoxication 

reached at end of typical drinking 

i 

session. 

more). Only one in every five black prisoners 

had been such very heavy drinkers (see table 

3). 

Women inmates were only half as likely 

as the men to drink daily or to drink very 

heavily. These dif£erences held true for both 

blacks and whites. 

Persons imprisoned before reaching age 

18 represent only 2% of the prison population. They usually drank less often and in 

lesser amounts than persons who were in the 

18-25 age group when they entered prison; 

nonetheless, they got "very drunk" with the 

same frequency. Among blacks, the 

frequency of drinking increased but the 

degree of drunkenness steadily decreased 

with age. Among whites the frequency of 

drinking remained stable after age 18, 

although the amount consumed during a drinking session peaked in the 18-25 age 

span. 

The drinking of Hispanics and nonHispanic prisoners prior to incarceration did 

not differ substantially. The percentages of 

abstainers and of those who got very drunk were the same for each group. Hispanics 

drank somewhat less frequently but were 

somewhat more likely to be very heavy 

drinkers than others. 

Other findings about pre-prison drinking 

patterns: 

• Divorced persons were more likely than 

others to drink very heavily. 

• Persons who had attended college were less likely than those with less education to 

be heavy drinkers. • Employed persons were somewhat less 

likely than the jobless to be abstainers but were also somewhat more likely to be daily 

drinkers. 

Drinking patterns by offense 

Two-fifths of all persons convicted for 

rape, assault, or burglary had been very 

heavy drinkers in the year before they went 

to prison. The proportion of all other 

offenders who had been very heavy drinkers 

fell between these groups and persons 

convicted of drug offenses. Drug offenders 

had the lowest proportion of very heavy 

drinkers and the highest proportion of 

abstainers-each one out of four. Rapists as 

a group were least likely to be abstainers; 

only 1 in 10 drank no alcohol in the year 

before incarceration. 

Drinking just prior to offense 

Self-reporting about drinking just prior to 

the offense is no more likely to be completely accurate than self-reporting about 

drinking habits during the entire year prior to 

prison. It could even lend itself to selfserving attempts to minimize the offense by 

presenting alcohol as a mitigating circumstance. However, in the 1979 survey, 

inmates were asked about their usual 

drinking habits before they knew they would 

be asked about their drinking immediately 

prior to the offense. The responses on 

amount consumed and degree of intoxication 

just prior to the offense are so strikingly 

similar to their general drinking habits that 

each tends to confirm the other. 

Almost half the inmates said they had 

3The number of American Indians in the survey was 

too sm all to analyze by age or sex. 

Table 3. Drinking patterns of inmates by percent with each characteristicl 

Percent 

Ab- Light Very Characteristic Number stained 2 to heavy2 heavy2 

Total 274,564 18 45 36 

Degree of drunkenness 

Very drunk . • 43,986 a 16 84 

Pretty loaded 41,135 a 32 68 

Feelinp: good 87,886 a 65 35 

Relatively sober 50,708 a 92 8 

Frequency of drinking 

Every day 89,801 a 35 65 

Nearly every day 14,357 a 50 50 

3 or 4 days a week 26,886 a 60 40 

1 or 2 days a week 59,884 a 70 30 

1 or 4 days a month 12,234 a 77 24 

About cnce a month 8,560 a 84 16 

Less than once a month 12,186 0 88 12 

Age at admission 

Under 18 6,412 29 45 26 

18-25 139,251 18 43 39 

26-34 81,533 19 47 34 

Over 34 46,501 15 50 34 

Sex 

Male 263,481, 17 45 37 

Female 11,080 34 47 18 

Race 

White 116,296 13 37 50 

Black 131,329 24 55 21 

American Indian3 5,440 11 25 64 

Other 1,499 40 37 23 

Marital status 

Married 61,420 20 47 33 

Widowed 6,248 18 52 30 

Divorced 46,114 14 43 43 

Separated 18,168 18 47 35 

Never married 142,414 19 45 36 

Ethnicity 

Hispanic 25,816 18 38 43 

Non-HisEanic 248,748 18 46 36 

Education at admission 

Not hiRh school graduate 196,047 18 44 38 

HiRh school graduate 50,359 19 46 35 

Some colleRe 28.158 19 56 25 

Income in year prior to current offense4 

None 2,218 'I) 45 25 

SI-S9,999 84,014 16 45 40 

S10,OOO and over 41,779 17 47 36 

Employment in year prio r to current offense 

Employed 192,800 16 47 37 

Not em2lo:!:ed 81.005 23 43 34 

Number of prior convictions 5 

None 13,925 18 56 25 

1 13 ,069 21 47 32 

2-4 29,046 21 47 32 

5 or more 25,493 18 40 42 

Current offense6 

Violent 157,742 18 47 35 

Homicide 48,041 16 51 33 

Assault 17,216 14 41 45 

Rape 16,460 10 48 41 

Robbery 68,324 22 44 34 

Other violent 7,701 15 49 36 

Property R5,562 18 43 40 

Burglary 49,223 16 41 43 

ForRerv or fraud 11,505 22 46 32 

Larceny 13,018 22 47 31 

Other property 11,815 16 39 44 

Drugs 19,420 24 48 28 

Public order 10 982 17 46 37 

NOTE: Detail may not add to totals shown because of rounding. Numerical totals for 

a variable may not add to the Rrand total, i.~., 214,564, rlue to non-response or to 

omission of one or more categories, e.g., non-drinker; rate of non-response for the 

variables shown did not exceed O.4r.. 

IDrinking experience is for the year prior to current 9ffense. 

2very heavy drinkers consumed 4 or more ounces of ethanol at a typical drinking 

8e8sion durinR the year prior to current offense; liRht to heavy drinkers typically 

consumed less. Abstainers did not drink during the year prior to current offense. 

3Incl udes any Eskimos and Aleuts. 

4To minimize the effect of inflation upon income fiRures, only inmates admitted 

to prison after November 1977 are included. 

5To minimize the effect of age upon comparisons of numbers of prior convictions, 

only inmates aRe 26-34 at time of admission are included. 

60ffense for which an inmate was incarcerated. 

been drinking just prior to their offenses. 

Given their drinking habits during the year 

prior to confinement, this is no more than 

would be expected on any particular day. 

More than three-fifths of those drinking just 

before the offense drank very heavily and 

nearly three-fifths became "pretty loaded" or 

"very drunk." Rapists and assaulters 

were most apt to be drinking prior to the 

offense; forgers and larcenists the least. 

~bUdngen~onment 

The half of the inmate population that 

had been drinking just before the crime were 

drinking with others, most likely drinking 

beer, were most likely drinking it in a bar 

and on the average had been drinking for more than 4 hours (see table 4). 

The inmates usually drank with others in 

the year prior to their offense, so the fact 

that almost all had company in their precrime drinking may not be especially 

significant. 

Although bars were frequent pre-crime 

drinking sites, so were home, a friend's home, 

and a car. More than a quarter of the precrime drinkers reported drinking in cars and 

a sixth did some pre-crime drinking in the 

street. The inmates didn't particularly stay 

put during their drinking. Possibly as many 

as two-fifths of the inmates did their 

drinking in more than one location. This is 

not surprising considering how long these 

drinking bouts lasted. Although the average 

session lasted for more than 4 hours, over 

40% had been drinking for more than 5 hours 

and more than 20% had been drinking for 

longer than nine. Over 80% of the persons 

who had been drinking between 5 and 9 hours 

had been drinking heavily (consuming 4 or more ounces of ethanol); 90% of the persons 

who had been drinking for more than 9 hours 

had consumed that much. 

Alcohol treatment programs 

Inmates who drank during the year 

preceding prison were asked if they had ever 

been in a treatment program; inmates who 

had done no drinking were not asked. 

Consequently, some successful graduates of 

treatment programs may not be reflected in 

the survey data. 

Four-fifths of the drinking inmates (those 

who drank during the year prior to prison) 

had never been in an alcohol treatment 

program (see table 5). Presumably, many of 

these were moderate drinkers for whom 

alcohol did not present a problem. However, 

seven-tenths of the habitually very heavy 

drinkers (4 or more ounces of ethanol) had 

never been in an alcohol treatment program 

either. 

Examining the one-fifth ever enrolled in a 

treatment program reveals that a fourth of 

them had been enrolled in more than one program and that a seventh (or 3% of the 

total number of drinkers) were enrolled in 

treatment programs at the time of their 

offense. In fact, more than two-thirds of 

those ever enrolled in alcohol treatment 

programs had been drinking very heavily just 

before their offense. 

Habitual offenders drank heavily 

Persons over 25 but under 35 years of age 

are in the upper half of the prison-prone 

years. These persons are likely to have 

established firm patterns with respect to 

both drinking and crime. Among inmates in 

that age bracket, habitual offenders 

(prisoners who had five or more prior 

convictions) were more likely than persons 

with fewer convictions to have been very 

heavy drinkers. More than two-fifths of 

these career offenders drank very heavily 

during the year prior to their offense 

compared to a fourth of those with no prior 

convictions. 

Crime and drinking 

The 1979 Inmate Survey was the first 

attempt to measure the drinking habits of 

prisoners on a nationwide basis. It 

established a greater degree of involvement 

with alcohol than had generally been 

anticipated. 

The fact that one inmate out of every 

four drank very heavily on a daily or near 

daily basis in the year before incarceration 

indicates an alcohol problem of staggering 

size. If the same were true of today's prison 

Table 4. Inmates' drinking just prior to 

current offense, by selected characteristics 

and amount drunk. 

Percent 

Light Very Characteristic Number to heayy heavy 

Total 129,444 38 62 

Hours spent 

drinking 

Les8 than 1 12,150 92 8 

1-2 32,192 62 38 

3-4 25,547 34 66 

5-8 29,550 19 81 

9 or more 27,330 11 8Q 

Not available 2,675 52 48 

Alcoholic 

beverage 

Beer 85,735 36 64 

v1ine 26,181 35 65 

Liquor 73,679 23 77 

Other alcohol 1,415 18 82 

DrinkinR settiOR 

Home 37,310 31 69 

Friend' 9 hOllle 35,875 31 69 

Bar 51,207 32 6A 

Car 36,889 28 72 ~estllUrant 2,566 32 68 

Street 21,113 30 70 

workplace 0 0 0 

Elsewhere 29 0 100 

Current offense! 

Violent 78,905 40 60 

Homicide 24,399 44 56 

Asaault 10,099 38 62 

Rape 9,419 35 65 

Robbery 30,817 40 60 

Other violent 4,171 37 63 

Property 39,774 32 68 

Burp:lary 24,859 29 71 

Forgery or 

frau" 1,67A 41 59 

Larceny 5,123 39 61 

Other property 6,114 32 68 

Drugs 5,244 54 46 

Public order 5,150 45 55 

NOTE: The totals for alcoholic bevera~e and 

drinking setting exceed the number of inmates drinking just prior to the offense 

because an individual coulrl have drunk more 

than one type of beverage and been in more 

than one settinRl rate of non-response for 

the variables shown did not exceed 0.3%. 

10ffense for which an inmate was incarcerated. 
fl' 

inmate population, we would be discussing 

nearly 94,000 individuals. 

The relationship between alcohol 

consumption just prior to the crime and the 

crime itself has not been sufficiently 

explored by these data. It is tempting to 

point to very heavy drinking (again, the 

equivalent of at least 8 cans of beer, 7 

glasses of wine or nearly 9 ounces of 80 proof 

liquor) as the proximate cause of many 

crimes since 30% of the offenders admitted 

to such large consumptions just prior to their 

offense. The survey strongly suggests 

however, that for many offenders these are 

typical daily drinking levels. 

Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletins are prepared by the staff of the 

bureau. Carol B. Kalish, chief of 

policy analysis, edits the bulletins. 

Marilyn Marbrook, head of the 

bureau publications unit, administers 

their publication, assisted by Julie A. 

Ferguson. This bulletin was written 

by Ms. Kalish based on material 

developed by Wilfred T. Masumura of 

the U.S. Bureau of the Census. 

January 1983, NCJ-86223 

U.S. Department of Justice 

Bureau of Justice Statistics 

Washington, D.C. 20531 

Bulletin 

Table 5. Inmates who drank during the year prior to current offense, 

by drinking patterns and alcohol treatment programs 

In program 

at time of Programs ever 

of offenBe enrolled in 

Two or Characteris tic Total YeB No None One more 

Total drinkerB 224,789 6,118 216,910 180,690 33,001 9,983 

Frequency of drinking 

Total 224,789 100% 100% 100? 100% 1007. 

Every day 89,801 63 39 36 56 68 

Nearly every day 14,357 8 6 6 7 8 

3 or 4 days a week 26,886 8 12 12 11 8 1 or 2 days a week 59,8114 16 27 29 19 10 

3 or 4 days a month 12,234 2 6 6 3 2 About once a month 8,560 1 4 4 2 2 LeBa than once a month 

Typical amount of alcohol 

12,186 2 6 6 2 3 

consumed year prior to 

current offense 

Total 224,789 100r. 100% 100% 100% 100% 

Very heavy (4 or more 

oz. of ethanol) 99,570 75 44 39 67 80 

Light to heavy (leBB 

than 4 oz. of ethanol) 

Amount of alcohol conBumed 

124,404 25 56 61 33 20 

JUBt prior to offense 

Total 224,789 100% 

Very heavy (4 or more 10m:: 100r. 100r. 100% 

oz. of ethanol) 79,804 64 35 30 57 68 Li~ht to heavy (lesB 

than 4 oz. of ethanol) 49,639 17 22 23 21 18 

Not drinking then 

Typical de~ree of 

94,314 19 43 47 22 14 

drunkenness year prior 

to current offense 

Total 224,789 100% 100% 100% 100r. 100% 

Very drunk 43,986 41 19 16 32 40 

Pre t ty loaded 41,135 25 III 17 25 25 

Feeling good 87,886 27 40 41 32 28 

Relativelx sober 50,708 8 23 25 11 II De~ree of drunkenness 

just prior to offense 

Total 224,789 100r. 100r. 100r. 100r. 100r. 

Very drunk 45,518 44 20 16 35 43 

Pretty loaded 31,235 14 14 11 20 16 

Feeling good 31,702 13 14 14 15 16 

Relatively Bober 20,433 9 9 9 9 10 

Not drinking then 94,314 19 43 47 22 14 

NOTE: Numerical totalA include an insignificant proportion (not more than 17.) for 

which data were not availahle. 

of rounding. 

Official Business 

Penalty for Private Use $300 

Percent detail may not add to totals shown because 

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