[3] In Poland drunk tanks or "sobering-up chambers" (izba wytrzeźwień) exist in bigger cities (52 as of 2013), hosting a total of 300,000 people yearly.
[8] Such institutions, known as vytrezvitel (Russian: вытрезвитель, literally a "soberator"), were introduced in 1904 in Tula by Fedor Archangelsky, a local physician.
[10] The move was motivated by the number of intoxicated persons who freeze to death in Russia's harsh winter climate conditions (about 10,000 people annually).
[13] Mobile drunk tanks, also known as "booze buses", and officially as "alcohol recovery centres", have since been introduced in some cities (Bristol being the first to do so).
Reports from San Francisco, California (dating from 1949) show the dire conditions faced by intoxicated people.