A comparison of U.S. jail inmates and the U.S. general population with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV alcohol use disorders: sociodemographic and symptom profiles Bradley T. Kerridge * Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland, 27 Baltimore Avenue, College Park, MD 20740, USA Received 9 June 2007; received in revised form 7 October 2007; accepted 9 October 2007 Abstract The objective of this study was to compare sociodemographic and symptom profiles between U.S. jail inmates and the U.S. general population with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) alcohol use disorder. Data for the study were derived from two large nationally representative surveys, the 2002 Survey of Inmates in Local Jails and the 2001e2002 National Ep- idemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. U.S. inmates were significantly more likely (P !.007) to be younger, male, Black or Hispanic, to have lower education, and to be separated/divorced/widowed or never married relative to their U.S. general population coun- terparts. Inmates were also more likely to have more severe alcohol abuse and dependence. Implications of this study are discussed in terms of meeting the unique alcohol treatment needs of U.S. jail inmates including implementation of more intensive alcohol treatment and in- tervention programs targeting specific needs of inmates with alcohol use disorder as revealed from unique sociodemographic profiles. Ó 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Alcohol use disorders; Jail; General population; Sociodemographic characteristics; Symptom profile; Alcohol abuse; Alcohol dependence Introduction The jail population in the United States has continued to increase steadily, from 405,320 in 1999 to 747,529 in 2005 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2006). The large increase has been attributed to an increase in drug-related crime and changes in law enforcement practices related to drug- related crime during this period (Belenko and Peugh, 1998, 2005) and consequently high rates of substance use disor- ders among inmates. In 2002, the Bureau of Justice Statis- tics estimated that 47.8% of convicted U.S. jail inmates had an alcohol use disorder (i.e., alcohol abuse or dependence). Despite the growing number of inmates with alcohol use disorder, little is known about how sociodemographic char- acteristics and diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorder differ between convicted inmates of U.S. jails and the gen- eral U.S. population. Understanding differences in sociode- mographic and alcohol-related symptom profiles among affected individuals in these two populations could provide information on how alcohol treatment delivered to the U.S. general population might be tailored to address unique characteristics of inmates with alcohol use disorder. Accordingly, this study provides a direct comparison of sociodemographic characteristics and symptom criteria for alcohol use disorder between U.S. jail inmates and their U.S. general population counterparts. Data were derived from the 2002 Survey of Inmates of Local Jails (SILJ: Kar- berg and James, 2004) and the 2001e2002 National Epide- miologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC: Grant et al., 2003a, 2003b, 2004). Both national surveys used identical diagnostic symptom items to derive Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV: American Psychiatric Associa- tion, 1994) diagnoses of alcohol abuse and dependence. Materials and methods All potential NESARC and SILJ respondents were in- formed in writing about the nature of the survey, the statis- tical uses of the survey data, the voluntary aspect of their participation, and the Federal laws that rigorously provide for the strict confidentiality of identifiable survey informa- tion. Those respondents consenting to participate after * Tel. þ1-301-345-0994. E-mail address: xyrloc@yahoo.com (B.T. Kerridge) 0741-8329/08/$ e see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2007.10.002 Alcohol 42 (2008) 55e60