Thousands of prisoners mistakenly tested positive for use of opiates in California prisons last year for clinical misconceptions. And civil rights lawyers are worried that many of them could be denied a chance of parole and freedom.
Approximately 6,000 drug tests are believed to have produced false positive results in 2024, according to lawyers for Uncommon Law, a nonprofit advocacy group representing prisoners seeking parole. The organization confirmed false test results through a series of public record requests. This showed positive test results that suddenly surged into California prisons between April and July last year.
The test was conducted as part of the inmate’s drug treatment program and was included in the medical records, but the attorney representing the inmates said the test results were also included in the birther’s parole hearing records as a result.
“Part of the problem is that they don’t know the full extent of how it has affected people,” said Natasha Baker, an unusual legal lawyer. “I believe some of our clients have been turned down.”
California Correctional Health Services, which provides healthcare to prisoners in 31 prisons in the state, has notified of California’s incorrect testing of amendments and rehabilitation after finding a significant increase in the number of estimated positive tests between April and July 2024, according to a statement from the Department of Corrections.
False positives resulted from urinary drug tests administered to inmates undergoing treatment for drug addiction and were not part of the random drug tests that inmates may face when they are suspected of using drugs. The test is not intended to be used for punitive purposes, Baker said, but the inmate’s medical records, including drug tests that occur as part of the treatment, are included in the file when considered parole.
“You have a board of directors making life and death decisions based on drug screens,” she said.
According to Uncommon’s law, screenings for positive opiates in state prisons on average came at around 6% per month.
However, between mid-April and late July 2024, advocacy groups found that the positivity rate for drug screens in prisons had a huge surge in prisons, peaking at around 20% in June.
Based on data obtained under Uncommon’s law, the group estimates that at least 15 California prisons have recorded at least 200 false positive tests during that period. In most prisons, nearly one of the eight tests may have resulted in false results, the group estimates.
The incorrect test results appear to have had the most impact on the state prisons in Corcoran, according to data from Uncommon Law.
At this point, Baker said it is unclear to what extent the number of prisoners who received false drug test results face a parole hearing.
The test was conducted by Quest Diagnostics, a company that has signed up to perform drug screening in state prisons.
The company said that the original substance was not available to the manufacturer, resulting in false testing between mid-April and July 2024 after the company temporarily changed the chemicals used in reagents or drug testing.
In a statement, a company spokesman said the alternative reagent had been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“We believe that the different reagents provide a higher estimated positivity rate for screening results than the standard reagents used by Quest Diagnostics,” the statement read.
The company added that putative screening can sometimes provide false positives. In many cases, further confirmation testing is required for estimation testing.
“We will make clear in our reporting of the tests that our estimates have not been confirmed in a conclusive test,” a spokesman for Quest Diagnostics said in a statement. “In addition, the report states that drug test results should be used only for clinical purposes.”
The company offers verification tests, but in most cases, California Correctional Health Services don’t require that, according to Quest Diagnostics.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections said California Corrections Health Services is in the process of notifying patients affected by false positives via letter. According to a spokesman, these letters should be included in the inmate’s electronic health records.
California Correctional Health Services “repeatly reviews its protocols to ensure the accuracy of its results, reiterating that these tests are intended for clinical use only,” the statement read.
However, internal discussions at the prison show that medical staff members have raised concerns that some prisoners may have already been denied parole as a result of drug testing.
“We believe that at least a few patients were turned down by the board because they were falsely affirmative,” one doctor from San Quentin wrote in an October email obtained under Uncommon’s law, which she shared with the LA Times.
Baker, an attorney for the unusual law, said state officials were not doing enough to ensure that false positive test results were not contaminated with prisoners’ parole processes.
“This could affect people’s parole decisions for years to come, given the way parole hearings work despite what happened in the last three months,” Baker said.
Their behavior, participation in rehabilitation programs, and risk scores for inmates taking into account their health records could also be affected, she said.
“I might go to a parole hearing in 2028, but I’m hearing for the first time in 2024 that there’s a positive drug test on your record,” Baker said. “How are you supposed to protect it?”
Baker said it was unclear how to determine exactly which prisoners were affected.
However, according to a January 29 memo from California Correctional Health Services, agents have identified a list of patients affected by the false testing.
On October 18th, medical staff provided training to the Parole Board on drug screening use and how testing is used only for medical purposes. The board was also explained about the three-month period in which the incorrect test results occurred.
The unusual law petitions the Parole Board to make a formal decision that the test for that period will not be used for that decision.
“All of these tests need to be wiped out because they’ve been contaminated,” Baker said. “It’s the easiest and most unbiased way to deal with it.”
She said she believes that medical records should not be accessible when conducting the assessment, as reviewing inmate treatment records without proper training could lead to false conclusions.
“This is a terrible example of why the board has been pushing for so long to avoid accessing treatment records,” she said.
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