DRUG USE BY INMATES

LEESVILLE - More than 25 percent of the inmate population of the Vernon
Correctional Facility has tested positive for drug use.

Earlier this month, Louisiana Department of Corrections officers from
Phelps Correctional Center in DeQuincy came to the Vernon Correctional
Facility to test the 205 inmates for drug use.

After a full day of collecting samples, 54, or 25.3 percent, of the 205
inmates tested positive for marijuana use, said Johnny Creed, head of DOC's
adult services in Baton Rouge.

"We came at the request of the sheriff up there," he said. "Drug testing of
inmates is a common practice ... routine drug testing."

The 205 tested are state prisoners and are being housed in the parish prison.

Creed said the 50 inmates that tested positive for drug use were assigned
to work details outside the prison.

"We searched the prison and no drugs were found," he said. "That led us to
believe that they (inmates) were using the drugs while on work details
outside the prison."

Each inmate that tested positive was given a disciplinary hearing at the
prison by DOC personnel, Creed said. He said each was given a custody
change - from minimum to medium - and a job change. They also lost their
"good time" credit, which are days earned and applied toward early release.

Creed said the 50 inmates can no longer work outside the confines of the
prison. He said all the inmates remain at the VCF.

"We will do drug testing there again ...," he said. "We do this on a
routine basis."

Creed said he can only remember one case where a higher number of inmates
tested positive.

"That was a few years ago in a parish prison in north Louisiana," he said.
"In this case there were quite a few."

The inmates that tested positive will have to pay the state the $4 to $4.50
to cover the cost of the test, Creed said. "They will be charged and they
will have to pay ... ."

None of the inmates tested positive for other types of drugs, Creed said.

There's no way to tell from the tests how long an inmate has been using
marijuana, according to drug testing companies.

"Marijuana can be out of a person's system within four days for a
first-time user," said Sonya Wren, the medical review officer's assistant
at Business Health Partners in Sulphur.

"Body composition is a factor in how long marijuana stays in the system,"
she said. "If it's a repeated user then it could remain in the body for up
to six weeks. The more fat cells a person has, the longer drugs remains in
the body."

Dr. Brian Heinen Jr., the medical review officer for the Drug Testing
Consortium in Eunice, said marijuana, or the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC),
remains in a person's system for 11/2 to two weeks.

"Again, this depends on the composition of the body. Fat retains THC," he
said. "Water is really the only thing that breaks down the THC level in the
body."

Vernon Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman Marvin Hilton said of the 54
inmates that tested positive, 19 had arrived at the prison within days of
the drug test. He said they were parole and probation violators.

"They admitted to us that they had used drugs before they got to the
prison," he said.

Of the remaining 35 inmates who tested positive, Hilton said 22 of them
participated in the prison's work release program and the other 13 were
assigned to outside work details.

"Those on work release are not supervised or guarded 24 hours a day, seven
days a week," he said. "They are allowed a certain amount of freedom."

Hilton said the fact that VCF inmates tested positive for drug use is not
uncommon in prisons.

"You can't tell me that other prisons don't have inmates that test positive
for drug use," he said. "There's no way to stop it. You will have something
from time to time."

Hilton stressed that after prison officials received information that there
may be drug use in the prison that Sheriff Sam Craft acted.

"He (Craft) called Phelps (Correctional Center) and asked them to come
search and drug test," he said. "No drugs were found in the prison."

As a result of the testing, Hilton said new policies have been enacted at
the prison using DOC guidelines. He said no prison employees have been
disciplined.

By comparison, the Calcasieu Correctional Center in Lake Charles houses
between 300 and 350 DOC inmates, and most recently tested 25 inmates and
seven tested positive for drug use, said Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office
spokesman Lt. Col. Bruce LaFargue.

"We generally test three to five inmates at a time, especially when we get
a tip that someone is dirty (using drugs)," he said.

"Our test, which we recently switched to, screens for five types of drugs,
including THC, cocaine and amphetamines."

The VCF, located at the intersection of La. 468 and 184 about three miles
east of Leesville, opened in 1993. It houses more than 200 minimum-security
state inmates serving one-to five-year sentences.