As academics, we were aware that it is really difficult to do research around health conditions in the criminal justice system. You must navigate funding which may require either crime or health as a primary outcome as well as the necessary ethical approvals in both a health and a criminal justice system which can take a long time. However, after 20 years of working in the field of testing alcohol interventions in various stages of the criminal justice system, which has included systematic reviews, evaluations and randomised controlled trials, we have realised the need for much more research in this area. Furthermore, we realised that a book was needed to explain the issues and help future researchers and academics working in the field.