Drug Use Appears Rife Among D.C. Prisoners

9% Rate Found in 6 Months of Random Tests

By Cheryl W. Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 12, 1997; Page B01
The Washington Post

Nine percent of D.C. Department of Corrections prisoners tested
positive for illegal drugs during random checks in the last six
months, a percentage almost four times the most recent national
average for state prison systems.

During the six months from December through May, D.C. officials
checked 5,685 prisoners for illicit drugs, and 512 inmates tested
positive, according to information released to The Washington Post
under the Freedom of Information Act.

The most common drug found during urine testing of District inmates
was marijuana, followed by cocaine. In all, 258 prisoners tested
positive for marijuana, 113 for cocaine, 81 for opiates, 39 for
amphetamines, 21 for PCP and one for heroin.

Testing was done at the D.C. jail, three halfway houses and the six
prisons at the Lorton Correctional Complex: Youth Center, Minimum,
Medium, Maximum, Occoquan and Central.

The numbers provided for the Central prison, which houses 1,347 male
felons who are serving long sentences or are considered escape risks,
are in dispute. The numbers released by the department showed that 49
percent of the 143 prisoners tested at Central had positive results.

Central Warden Michelle Elzie, who has been in charge of the
mediumsecurity prison since January, said that 62 inmates out of 758,
or 8 percent, tested positive.

She attributed the mistake to a deputy who oversaw the compilation
while she was on vacation. The deputy blamed another employee.

"I don't know that I can explain it, except to say that they [staff]
didn't count right," Elzie said.

U.S. Attorney Eric H. Holder Jr. called the overall statistics
"appalling."

"Those numbers are shocking to me," Holder said. "You expect that once
people are convicted of crimes and sent to prison their access to
drugs is stopped. It's just another reason why the president's
revitalization plan is so important," said Holder, referring to a
federal aid plan that includes a proposal for a federal takeover of
the Lorton prisons. "It's crucial to the welfare of the city."

Corrections Director Margaret A. Moore said that illegal drugs are
being smuggled into the prisons by staff members, visitors and
sometimes through the mail, but she said it's difficult to prevent.

"No correctional institution is drugfree," Moore said. "You would
really have to be prepared to adopt a policy to shock the country to
prevent drugs from being introduced into the correctional institution.
And I am certain the citizens and elected officials of the District of
Columbia are not ready for that."

Prisoner access to illegal drugs has been a longrunning problem for
District correctional officials.

In 1990, officials responding to a Washington Post series on drug use
in the D.C. jail said about 6 percent to 10 percent of inmates who had
been incarcerated there for at least one month tested positive in
random drug tests. In the same year, according to the Bureau of
Justice Statistics, 2.6 percent of the inmates in state prison systems
nationwide tested positive for drugs. That is the most recent year for
which the bureau compiled national statistics on random drug tests of
inmates.

In 1992, 11 correctional officers were arrested for taking illegal
drugs into the Lorton prisons. In 1996, a correctional officer pleaded
guilty in federal court in Alexandria to two felony counts of
smuggling marijuana and heroin into Lorton prisons.

Part of the problem, Moore said, is that many staff members grew up
with the inmates or are related to them. They smuggle drugs as a favor
or out of fear. "Sometimes people are so frightened they will
compromise themselves and bring drugs into the facility," Moore said.

At the Youth Center, 6 percent or 72 of 1,199 inmates tested from
January 1997 through May showed positive results. No tests were
given in December 1996 because no test kits were available, officials
said.

At Occoquan, which houses male prisoners typically sentenced to more
than five years, 32 of 508 inmates, or 6 percent, tested positive.
Testing was not done for March because drug kits were not available,
officials said.

At the D.C. jail, 79 of 1,001 inmates, or 8 percent, tested positive.
At the halfway houses, whose inmates are allowed to leave during the
day but return in the evenings, 220 out of 1,187 prisoners tested, or
18.5 percent, had positive results.

At the Correctional Treatment Facility, which houses 858 men and women
and was turned over to a private contractor in March, drug testing did
not start until two weeks ago, officials said. Two hundred fifty
inmates have been tested, and two have tested positive for marijuana,
according to Assistant Warden Carolyn Cross.

At Lorton's minimum and maximumsecurity facilities, 3 percent of the
inmates tested had positive results; fewer than 1 percent of the
inmates tested at the mediumsecurity prison tested positive. "I would
love to say I could stop it, but I've been in this business long
enough to know that's not going to happen," Cross said. "We minimize
it as much as we can through shakedowns of inmates."

Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (RVa.) called the illegal drug use by
prisoners "tragic" but not surprising. "That shows how well your
prison is being run," said Davis, who has proposed closing Lorton.
"You just have to turn that thing [Lorton] inside out."

Anthony Swetz, director of medical services for the Maryland
Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which includes
the state's 26 prisons, said he is surprised by the number of D.C.
inmates who tested positive.

In Maryland, the percentage of inmates testing positive for drugs
averages about 3.5 percent, Swetz said. In January, for example, 3,851
drug tests were administered; 174, or 4.5 percent, of the tests were
positive. Of the 5,066 drug tests given in March, 172, or 3.4 percent,
were positive, he said.

Any inmate who tests positive for drugs in the Maryland penal system
goes before a hearing officer who imposes sanctions that could mean a
delay in parole, according to spokesman David Towers. Maryland prisons
house 20,000 inmates.

Unlike the District, which has two substance abuse programs for
inmates, Maryland has one in every prison facility, Towers said.

In Virginia, the Department of Corrections does "limited random"
testing at five of its 52 institutions the five that treat drug
offenders, according to spokesman David Botkins. About 25,000 inmates
are incarcerated in Virginia prisons.

The number of inmates tested for drugs and the number testing positive
are not available, Botkins said. "We don't track them that way," he
said.

(c)Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company