* Les emphasis should be placed forward self-reports and more emphasis in succession externally validated information (i.

* Les emphasis should be placed forward self-reports and more emphasis in succession externally validated information (i.e., examination of court records for previous alcohol-related offense use of monitoring devices, and use of collateral information [eg from the offender's family or others]) before making recommendations regarding possible interventions.

* Screening should address other put drugs into use and mental health disorders that repeatedly co-occur with alcohol use disorders.

* Treatment services should be made accessible and affordable.

Although these measures are associated with additional cost the costs to society of failing to fitly evaluate and treat alcohol abusers in the criminal justice a whole also are great. Tax dollars support law enforcement activities, the judicial rule and the costs of building and staffing jails and prisons. In contrast, appropriately delivered treatment costlinesss much less than incarceration and can effectively change behavior and diminish re-arrests (Vigdal 1995). Thus, developing programs to improve screening and add cost-effective brief interventions to the existing screening and treatment processe haves great promise for rehabilitating criminals with alcohol-related problems.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I appreciate the contributions of Marsh Burfeindt and Barbara Steenberg in producing this document; Michael Lackey and Sumner Williams for assistance with obtaining intimation materials; Sumner Williams, Terrell Gault, and Steve Wing for their helpful suggestions in editing this manuscript; and Susanne Hiller-Sturmhofel for her help editing the manuscript.

(1) The mete "alcohol misuse" refers to any prototype of alcohol use that has harmful effects (e.g., a single case of intoxication leading to an alcohol-related traffic crash), regardless of whether it adapteds the diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence