One of the great stories of AA in England during the 1960s was the rise of the Prison groups.  The success inside prison walls showed that AA can work for the alcoholic offender.  It was recognised as ‘the best catchment area to be found for the non-drinking alcoholic’. 

The first English prison group was formed at HMP Wakefield in December 1958 by Jack H. from Cambridge. The Second group started at HMP Dorchester in 1959 early sponsors: Jacko, Riou, Humphry H. and Travers.  By 1965, AA had spread to other Establishments so that a Prison Intergroup (PIG) was formed.  By 1972  there were 61 AA prison groups in England and with a further 15 with limited facility. 

In HMP Bristol Horfield, Prison Officer Bailey took up the role of liaison and showed a keen interest in the AA group, often getting prisoners involved in the work of the 12 step programme of recovery. He even spoke at the First European Convention in 1971, such was his enthusiasm for the work of AA in prisons.  During the European Convention, a lady sponsor from Holloway Prison lauded the Bristol Prison group.  She said it was ground breaking in that the prisoners themselves led the meeting, something that did not happen anywhere else.

The link between prisoners' repeat offending and their drinking was now being established in people’s minds: not only with sufferers but with prisons' administrations, welfare officers, chaplains and prison officers. On the outside, it also broadened the base of AA membership with prisoners being released and keen to attend regular meetings. 

The groundwork was set for a new generation to build on these early pioneering groups inside prison walls.  When Bristol Fashion invited Joe & Charlie over to England in April 1989, to do their Big Book Study at Nympsfield, it created a lot of interest in the Fellowship. 

One of the people who came was Peter B. who already had an interest in Prison work. While at Nympsfield he got the idea of starting a treatment programme in British prisons similar to what Joe McQ was doing in America.  The rest, as we say, is history.

12 Thoughts on Sponsorship 

1. The relationship between sponsor and protégé is mutually rewarding. The sponsor is both teacher and pupil. You come to be so interested in your protégé that a hole in his shoe makes your foot cold.
2. You get a thrill when you see your new boy (or girl) making the grade. This thrill is heartwarming and lasting. You never outlive the ability to be so thrilled.
3. Speak up to your own experience, but not beyond it. Your own story, told simply, without exaggeration or drama, carries conviction. It is the sincerity of the speaker that puts over our message, not skilled oratory or a well turned phrase. Only you can tell your story.
4. In 12th Step work, we carry the message to an alcoholic who is still suffering. We do not carry the alcoholic. Do not confuse 12th stepping with baby-sitting.
5. When an infant is learning to walk, the wise mother does not insist on carrying the child. She allows the baby to learn to use its legs.
6. Encourage the prospect to speak. Learn to be silent in seven languages. What he says can be of great importance. In talking about himself, he releases tension. The writer finds this most difficult. His friends who know him will understand why.
7. Do not think of yourself as changing the prospective new member. You are only the channel through which the Higher Power operates. Thomas a Kempis said "be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be since you cannot make yourself as you would wish to be.
8. Should your efforts be rewarded with success you, being human, will enjoy a great thrill, but always remember that the credit belongs to the Higher Power. Remembrance of this will safeguard the sponsor against disaster in those cases where the prospect does not respond. Should we take the credit in successful cases, we must blame ourselves when our efforts have apparently failed. 
9. No honest effort in AA is ever wasted. 
10. Responsibility of a sponsor. No man is an Island. Always remember, from now on, you are all Ambassador for AA / Watch your behaviour carefully. A slip on your part, could cause the death of your protégé. Be specially careful when dealing with a member of the opposite sex. Beware, lest you cause scandal within your group, or about your group. Love is blind, but the rest of your group is not!
11. Do not let fear of making a mistake keep you from making a 12th Step call. If any man can honestly tell you he has never made a mistake you can bet your bottom dollar that his father cannot make the same claim.
12. Expect to be criticised. Ours is a fellowship of men and women. Some of the criticism may be justified. "It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to listen to the singing of fools." - Eccls., Chap 7, Verse 5. Eamon Andrews on TV recently quoted the late Pope John who, in turn, was quoting a much earlier Pope on criticism, when he said "do your best, and be happy, and let the sparrows twitter."



By the late Tom T. of Birmingham.

First published in Bristol Fashion, November 1997, No. 352. 

Communications

Martin R. (Belfast)

Eileen G. ( New York)

Fiona D. ( Co Mayo )

Vaughan H. ( Bristol )

Christian ( Stockport)

Joyce Ann ( Ireland)

Stewart A. ( Bristol )

Larry G ( Little Rock)

Anniversaries

Bristol 1953 - 2023. It was Dr Jim H. from Belfast who started the first meeting in Bristol when he gathered together six other members at the Full moon on Stokes croft. Bristol's 70th Anniversary is coming up in November this year. The Editors intend to honour the occasion with an Anniversary Dinner at a city centre hotel, details to be announced.

Thought for the Month

"Alcoholics are people who need God and need each other."

Richard P.

First European Convention

Bristol, 1971

First published January 2012, Bristol Fashion Vol VI, No 26.