The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is reviewing hundreds of state parole hearings to see whether any inmates refused release were rejected due to inaccurate drug tests.
Nearly 6,000 drug tests in California prisons are believed to have produced false positives between April and July of last year, and attorneys for the Board of Parole are now reviewing inmate files to determine whether any of them need to appear before the parole board again to be reconsidered, according to CDCR officials.
If any inmates were denied parole due to inaccurate drug testing, they may be entitled to a second hearing before the parole board, according to attorneys representing affected inmates.
The review is already underway, and it will decide if “without the positive drug screening, there is sufficient evidence to support an incarcerated person’s denial of parole,” according to CDCR spokesperson Emily Humpal.
If there is insufficient evidence to sustain detention beyond the drug test, a new hearing will be arranged.
CDCR officials would to say how many parole hearings were being reviewed, or whether any had been rescheduled since the process began. The government added that more information will be accessible once the review is completed.
According to representatives from UnCommon Law, a nonprofit advocacy group for inmates seeking parole, parole board officials informed their attorneys this week that the review includes at least 459 parole hearings, as well as dozens of administrative reviews and denials from inmates to move up their parole hearing dates.
Attorneys for the group validated the fake test results after receiving information indicating that positive test results had increased across the state’s jail system between April and July of last year, prompting suspicions that something was wrong.
The California Board of Parole is also evaluating 75 administrative denials and 56 petitions to advance an inmate’s parole hearing, according to the agency.
All of the files being reviewed include offenders who were in CDCR’s Medication-Assisted Treatment program and were either denied release or petitioned to have their parole hearings moved forward to an earlier date, between April 2024 and this month. Inmates in the program take medication to manage substance abuse difficulties.
The drug tests, administered throughout the state’s 31 prison systems, were disseminated as part of some convicts’ drug treatment programs and documented in their medical records. Although prison officials are not permitted to utilize drug testing as part of disciplinary action, parole board members have access to the files.
Some supporters have argued that medical files should not be included in parole hearing decisions, claiming that the material is confidential and may provide an incomplete or inaccurate picture of the inmate’s behavior without the involvement of doctors. Furthermore, activists with UnCommon Law claim that drug tests used for medical treatment, like as the flawed ones employed last year, lack follow-up tests to validate results, potentially discouraging inmates from seeking addiction treatment.
“When the Board uses inconclusive drug tests from substance use treatment records in their parole hearings, they’re not just ignoring science and expert medical guidance — they’re driving people away from lifesaving treatment during a deadly overdose epidemic in our state prisons,” said Su Kim, UnCommon Law’s senior policy manager.
Natasha Baker, a UnCommon attorney, commended the state’s intention to examine recent parole board decisions, but expressed concern that the outcomes could have long-term consequences for offenders.
“We will need to closely monitor the review process and ensure that the Board takes the necessary steps to mitigate the impact of these faulty records,” she added in a written statement.
California Correctional Health Care Services, which provides inmate healthcare, was the first to identify the erroneous testing.
Positive opiate drug screens in the state’s jails averaged around 6% per month, according to statistics collected by UnCommon Law. However, between April and July 2024, medical drug testing yielded a positive result rate of approximately 20%. According to the association, around one out of every eight tests in most prisons yielded a positive result.
Quest Diagnostics, the business that administered the defective tests, stated that the misleading results occurred when it temporarily changed the reagent, or chemical, that was normally used in the testing. The substitution, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, is thought to have contributed to the greater positive rate.
CDCR officials said they were sending letters to convicts affected by the tests, which would also be recorded in their electronic health records.
On Oct. 18, medical staff also presented the Board of Parole with additional instruction on the use of drug screenings, including the fact that the tests are only intended for medical purposes.
Despite the current examination, several attorneys remain concerned that additional inmates may have been affected by faulty drug testing.
“The Board’s review may not capture everyone impacted by this, as it is not entirely clear how the Board is deciding that false positives were determinative of a parole decision,” Baker wrote in a prepared statement. “The [Parole] Board has not addressed what happens to people who were impacted by the false positives but who haven’t had their hearings yet.”
