You Owe Yourself a Drunk
Ch. 2 Summary

James Spradley begins Chapter 2 of You Owe Yourself a Drunk with some basic statistics concerning public drunkenness in the United States. He states that in the U.S., there are more arrests for public drunkenness than any other crime in 1965. Spradley then adds that in Seattle, the primary location for his study, that 70 per cent of police man-hours are dedicated to this type of offense and that 80 per cent of the incarcerated population for the year consists of repeat offenders. The primary participant of Spradley’s study in Chapter 2 is a 49-year-old man named William Tanner. The chapter is predominantly Mr. Tanner’s written personal account of his experiences as an urban nomad and his experiences with law enforcement. Mr. Tanner lived in Seattle, Washington for less than one year during 1967 - 1968. He was arrested on nine separate occasions and spent nearly two hundred days behind bars on drinking-related charges. Spradley has since lost contact with Mr. Tanner, and says that though Tanner’s experiences are exclusive to him, his story is very similar to that of thousands of other urban nomads. The rest of the chapter contains Mr. Tanner’s experiences inside and outside of jail. The majority of the letters are written from Tank #709 in the Seattle City Jail. He later writes from the Edgecliff Sanitarium in Spokane, as well as other jails and hospitals in Minnesota and Montana. William Tanner begins his writings by explaining his background, and writes that a psychologist in Minneapolis one told him that his IQ is 131, and that he does not belong in jail. He then begins to tell about his experience with law enforcement and the struggles of his life as a nomad. He tells Spradley that he has been robbed on six different occasions, twice by his fellow nomads, the rest by police officers in cities across the country. Tanner exemplifies his intelligence through his writing. Along with his letters to the author, the reader is given two separate Writs of Habeas Corpus that Mr. Tanner wrote himself. He says that he has had a couple of years’ training in journalism, and uses his writing abilities to help plead his case to the courts. These Writs are to no avail, as they are deemed premature or are ignored. A recurring subject in Mr. Tanner’s writings is that he shows a very real desire to better himself. He often speaks of paths he can or should take in order to adjust back to a “normal” lifestyle. He often speaks of finding employment, and cleaning up his appearance. Tanner writes about multiple plans he has in order to get sober, but upon each release from jail, he returns to alcohol and finds himself incarcerated once again. His legal troubles seem to significantly limit his ability to recover from his addiction. After long periods behind bars and enduring inhumane treatment, he feels like he owes himself a drunk after release.