Resource: Drug Testing Prison Mail and Papers: False Positives Should Not Have Real Consequences

Prisons in Washington State regularly test incoming mail and other belongings of incarcerated individuals for drugs. Unfortunately, prison officials are using faulty, rapid drug tests that report “presumptive positives,” and then punishing people based on inconclusive results. In Massachusetts, a judge stopped the use of similar tests in 2021, after it was revealed they had a nearly 40% false positive rate. Columbia Legal Services has received numerous requests for help from people at Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities who have faced harsh and irreversible consequences based on these faulty tests. People have been placed in prolonged solitary confinement (an internationally recognized form of torture), lost access to education and work , been moved to more restrictive prisons away from their loved ones, faced delayed prison release dates (at a daily cost of nearly $174 per person to Washington State taxpayers), and been barred from contacting their loved ones—all because of presumptive positive results.