A prison-based alcohol use education program: evaluation of a pilot study.

Northern Territory prisoners were followed up after release to determine the effect of an alcohol education course on their alcohol consumption, drinking group, disruptive behavior, criminal activity, family relationships, how they use their time, general health, ability to cope and take responsibility. Measures were obtained both from prisoners and key informants, and two groups of prisoners were compared: those who completed the course and others who had not done the course. A high level of correspondence was found between measures from key informants and prisoners. The prisoners attending the course showed significant improvements on all dimensions when compared to the control subjects.