Revealed: drug tests in California prisons yielded false positives, affecting thousands of people
Thousands of drug tests used by a major US diagnostic company in California prisons last year are suspected to have generated false positive results, an enormous error that has jeopardized the parole requests of some incarcerated people, according to civil rights lawyers and prison medical records.
California prison officials have known about the issue for months, but have failed to clear people’s records or reverse the consequences people have faced from the tests.
The problem originated with tests conducted by Quest Diagnostics, a company used by healthcare professionals across the country, and the sole firm contracted to do clinical drug screening for the California department of corrections and rehabilitation (CDCR).