Jail is not the best place for alcoholics to beat their addictions, the Northwest Territories' health minister said in response to reports that police are cracking down on chronic alcoholics committing offences in downtown Yellowknife.

CBC News recently reported that RCMP have started charging and fully prosecuting a small number of people they say repeatedly commit offences related to intoxication, ranging from shoplifting to assault and vandalism. The move is a departure from the common practice of detaining intoxicated people overnight and releasing them when they're sober.

Some critics have argued that the approach is too tough, and some of the people who have been targeted in the crackdown say it doesn't work.

Health Minister Floyd Roland said no one — police, corrections or the justice system — can make someone stop drinking.

"I've grown up in Inuvik and known individuals who went through programming seven times before they finally decided that was it," he said Thursday. "Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that if you really believe you've had enough, the programming is there and we're there to help you get over this."

Two men currently in the territorial jail as a result of the recent police action told CBC News that programs at the jail have not helped their alcoholism, don't last long enough, and are often delivered by people who are not properly trained.

Calvin and Clayton, both of whom did not want their last names published, said they want to stop drinking even though they haven't been able to yet. Yellowknife does not offer much help, they said.

"I'm not doing anything. It's hard to watch TV. All I do is sit in my room most of the time or pacing back and forth," said Calvin, 33, who is near the end of a three-month sentence he's been serving since being arrested for twice causing a disturbance and breaching the conditions of his release. He was jailed on April 13.

Calvin, who said he's admitted himself to the Salvation Army for treatment in the past, said the programs he's taken at the territorial jail amounted to working in the kitchen and having monthly telephone calls with a counsellor he said he had been talking to for years.

'There's nothing for us'

Calvin's friend Clayton, 32, is awaiting trial for uttering threats, breaching his probation and missing court dates. He said he has tried going through the Natseje'e K'eh treatment centre's addiction treatment program in the past.

"There's nothing for us. They could label anything a program," Clayton said of the jail programs. "Like, working in the kitchen could be a program. [Alcoholics Anonymous] is a program, apparently, and so is church and school."

Both men said they don't attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings offered at the jail because they find it difficult to talk about personal issues when other inmates who attend meetings don't take them seriously.

Last year, the N.W.T. government provided local health authorities with just under $7 million to help people with addictions, Roland said.