In an attempt to crackdown on alcohol related violence the New South Wales government have opened the first of its “drunk tanks”.

Police in Sydney’s CBD and Randwick were the first to start operating the tanks last week. But drinkers and visitors to entertainment districts do not need to fear, the centres are reserved exclusively for violent or nuisance drunks, so those who are ‘well behaved’ have no need to worry about being locked up.

Those who should be concerned are people who are intoxicated in a public place, refuse to move on direction by police and behave in an anti-social manner that may endanger themselves or others. These people will be detained and kept in a drunk tank (or sobering up centre).

The first night of the sobering up centres resulted in 5 men aged from their late teens to early twenties being locked up and fined $200 each before being released the next morning.

The tough new conditions were spurred on by the death of a teenager in July last year. Thomas Kelly’s death in Sydney’s Kings Cross District resulted in a range of new regulations including a ban on the sale of shots after midnight. The teenager was hit while walking in the district with his girlfriend last year and died in hospital a few days later.

In the wake of the new sobering up centres, the State Government also announced further legislation to curb alcohol-related violence, including bans for disorderly behaviour, ID card scanners and greater supervision at high-risk venues.