According to researchers at NIJ and the Corrections Department, enough inmates were tested at random to accurately reflect the prison population as a whole. The results of the 1996 head hair analysis, used as the baseline for the study, revealed that 7.8 percent of the inmates tested positive for drug use in the three months prior to the test. Urinalysis showed almost no recent use. Earlier this year, another 1,000 inmates from the same prisons were randomly selected to undergo the same tests. Again, urinalysis alone revealed virtually no recent drug use.
Horn credits the department's interdiction efforts as the main reason for the dramatic difference.
Visitors are searched when they enter an institution and if the ion scanner has a positive result, the visitor is denied admission. Using computer technology, state prisons every day select a sample of inmates to test for illegal substances. Those with positive test results face stiff, mandatory sanctions and must undergo treatment. Horn stressed, however, that interdiction alone does not account for the results. The Corrections Department has developed a holistic approach to overcoming addiction and preventing recidivism.