65th anniversary of AA in Barlinnie

17 June 2025
Prison News

A SPECIAL event has been held at HMP Barlinnie to mark 65 years of the AA helping alcoholics in the prison.

The first meeting was held in 1960, making it the longest running if its kind in any prison in western Europe. Since then, the charity has spread to other establishments across Scotland and beyond, helping thousands of people.

On Tuesday 10 June, a special meeting was held in the prison chapel to mark the anniversary. Like other AA meetings, the event involved people standing up and speaking about their own history, their challenges with alcohol, and their recovery journey.

However, this one was different, with around 100 guests, staff members, and prisoners in the audience.

The speakers – some of whom were in the first months of their recovery journey, and some who had been sober for many decades – all received a warm round of applause after telling their respective stories.

There was also a round of applause for Tom Fox, who worked for the Scottish Prison Service for many years, in a range of senior roles, and was more recently also a non-alcoholic trustee and vice chairman of Alcoholics Anonymous in Scotland.

Some of the speakers also spoke after the event. We have changed their names to protect their anonymity.

Joe said: “I got sober in here almost 12 years ago. When I came into Barlinnie it was from a life of drunken binges and chaos. It was only when a guy from AA said to me, ‘You never need to feel that way ever again.’ I remember thinking – he knows, he understands. But the difference was he was going home that night to his dinner. He was walking out of prison a free man.

“I drank for about 25 years from a very young age. In those days, I never looked at myself. When I came to AA, I had to look at myself, what I had done, who I had harmed, the stuff veering about in my head.”

He added that coming back to Barlinnie to speak to the men there, who are at the start of their journey, was “a privilege beyond my wildest dreams”.

“Once I met a guy outside (who I had helped). He was pushing his dad in a wheelchair. He ran up and said, ‘Thank you, thank you so much.’ I said, ‘No, thank you.’”

Another speaker, Harry, said: “I’m ten months (sober). I’ve been in prison every year (of my adult life). The biggest sentence was two and a half years. It was all related to drink.”

He said that concern for his son had been his motivation for making a change. “I realised I need to take accountability for my actions,” he said.
“This is the best jail time I’ve done. I’m working on myself now. I used to think – when I did something – that it was always someone else’s fault. I know now it wasn’t – it was drink and drugs.

“I’m looking forward to life now. I always thought I wanted to die, but I just didn’t have the balls to do it. I’m looking forward to the rest of my life now. My mum sees me smiling and says she’s got her son back, who she lost all those years ago.”

By contrast, Bernard, has been sober for almost half a century. “I had my last drink and last drugs here, in HMP Barlinnie,” he said.
“A man said to me that if my life was a mess, get down on my knees and ask God to change it. I was willing to try anything at that point. I couldn’t sleep. My head was like a cement mixer full of bricks.

“I was at HMP Shotts when I went to my first AA meeting. It just completely changed my thinking. I came out of that meeting with as much literature as I could carry. I couldn’t wait to go back and went to every meeting for three years.

“I lost my first family because of my actions, and I was devastated. Now, I’ve been married for almost 40 years, to my soulmate, and I never dreamed my life could be this good.”

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