Prisons don't treat gambling addicts

Incarcerated gambling addicts are going untreated. Whose problem is it?

The addiction left him sick to his stomach. It started as a tight knot buried deep inside his gut. It built up to a tension that would leave Garry Johns shivering.

Ten years ago, it got so bad Johns resorted to beating up an elderly friend for $6,000. He figured he could better handle the resulting prison sentence than the seedy loan sharks who had lent him the money in the first place.

But when he got to prison, Johns was shocked to learn he couldn’t get treatment for his addiction, which by then had cost him a fortune and nearly his life.

“The counsellors said they couldn’t help me,” Johns recalls now. “They didn’t even know how to deal with my addiction.”

At the same time, the prison offered treatment for seemingly every other kind of addiction.

“Domestic violence, sexual predator… if I’m a crackhead or a pothead or a heroin addict, on any sort of drugs at all, or have an alcohol problem, they had counseling available for everything,” Johns said. “Except gambling.”

Addicted? B.C. jails offer the following treatment programs:

• Substance abuse management
• Violence prevention
• Respectful relationships
• Cognitive skills
• Relapse prevention
• Alcoholics Anonymous
• Narcotics Anonymous
• Living skills

Yet it’s likely many prison inmates suffer from gambling addictions.

A study by the University of Lethbridge’s Dr. Robert Williams suggests as much as one-third of prison inmates meet the criteria for pathological gambling.

“It’s shockingly high,” says Williams. “If true, that’s the highest prevalence rate ever found in any population.”

When inmates complete their sentences, they’re sent back into society, their problem untreated. That’s a big mistake, says Williams.

“If it’s not treated, you’re going to have a greater chance of recidivism,” he says.

His study also suggests half the crime committed by incarcerated gamblers is done to support their habit.

But for Corrections Canada, it comes down to a numbers game.

Its own numbers show only six per cent of new inmates admitted to federal institutions last year were judged to have gambling problems. But 80 per cent of new admissions were identified with some kind of substance abuse problem.

“It comes down to what the need is,” says Terry Hackett, Corrections Canada’s regional administrator of correctional programs. “We adjust our resources in accordance with that.”

Still, Hackett acknowledges methods for assessing gambling addictions need improvement. “We would expect once we develop a more standardized way of assessing gambling addiction, rates would probably increase.”

Provincially, the numbers game holds true. B.C. jails don’t offer gambling treatment. “We have had very little demand within our prisons for gaming addictions treatment,” says Solicitor General John Les.

Les says his office has not seen the research that suggests one-third of prison inmates could be addicted. At the same time, his ministry has hired Dr. Williams to research the socio-economic impacts of expanded gambling in the province.

The numbers:

Percentage of inmates who meet criteria for problem gambling: 33%

Percentage of new inmates who were identified with gambling problems at Corrections Canada facilities, 2005: 6%

Percentage of B.C. general public who meet criteria for problem gambling: 4.6%

Percentage of crime committed by incarcerated problem gamblers to support habit: 50%

Both federal and provincial officials, however, argue that while there are no in-house treatment programs, inmates with identified gambling problems are linked with "community resources" that can help.

"If it's a significant issue, we try to connect with resources in the community, such as Gamblers' Anonymous," Hackett said. "When the offender is released, we want them to have that support in place so that he doesn't relapse back into his gambling addiction."

The idea is for GA volunteers to run group meetings in prison – but it doesn’t always happen, says former inmate Garry Johns.

“We had two murders in prison within my first three months. One guy murdered was a 300-lb. enforcer for the Hell’s Angels,” Johns says. “Volunteers weren’t coming in. They were just scared. Would you want to come in?”

A spokesperson for GA’s Vancouver chapter says the group has held no meetings at correctional facilities in B.C. in the last year and a half.

And Johns says not only are problem gamblers not finding treatment in prison, inmates are getting hooked after being incarcerated.

“I know of 15 guys for sure. Those were people who didn’t have a problem when they came in and left with one,” Johns says of his three-year prison stint.

Some leave prison and end up committing crimes to supply their habit.

“We’re not talking just petty crimes here,” Johns says. “There’s murder, kidnapping, extortion. The whole gauntlet. I look at it and I just shake my head.”

Idaho State University’s Dr. DJ Williams is a leading researcher on gambling behaviour within prison. It’s widespread, he says, even if most institutions ban it.

But how many inmates get hooked? And how many go on to commit more serious crimes?

We just don’t know yet, says Williams. “I think there are a lot of officials who really don’t know the extent of the issue,” he says. “There just isn’t the research yet.”

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Tags: corrections canada, prison, treatment, gambling, addiction