New York, NY — A new report from the Inspector General’s Office sites flaws in DOCCS contraband testing, which led to “unsupported discipline of thousands” of inmates, including solitary confinement, delays in parole and loss of visitation.
New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang released a report Thursday, detailing defects in both the manufacturing and administration of drug tests used by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS, to detect the presence of contraband in correctional facilities. The inaccuracies led to the discipline of more than 2,000 inmates across the state “based upon unreliable evidence,” according to Lang’s report.
As the opioid epidemic surged regionally and nationally from 2016 to 2020, in New York’s prisons, a test manufactured by Sirchie Finger Print Laboratories called NARK II was used in DOCCS facilities due to “its unique ability to identify hard to detect drugs.”
It was not until August of 2020, DOCCS notified the Inspector General that the NARK II test had “inconsistent instructions,” potentially causing false-positives.
The NARK II instructions state, the test is designed to “serve merely as a presumptive test, producing preliminary results requiring laboratory confirmation.”
For four years, DOCCS used a positive result on an unconfirmed NARK II drug test as the basis for the imposition of discipline, according to the IG’s report.
Five days after receiving the initial notification, the Inspector General says she advised DOCCS to stop taking any disciplinary action against incarcerated individuals for a positive Nark II test result until confirmatory testing by an independent laboratory could be obtained. DOCCS immediately complied with both recommendations, including reversing and expunging the disciplinary records of incarcerated individuals who had been sanctioned based on such tests, according to the report.
Illicit drugs pose a serious threat to the safety and security of those who work and live in correctional settings, and while the detection and removal of these substances is imperative, it must be done with accuracy and fairness,” said New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Acting Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III. “To that end, we reported the potential for false-positive field test results to the Inspector General in 2020, resulting in the subsequent investigation, and have since made improvements that align with the report’s recommendations. I commend the Office of the Inspector General for its steadfast investigation and pursuit of fairness across New York State.
Following a full investigation, the Inspector General substantiated that “the instructions provided by the NARK II manufacturer were inconsistent, contradictory and, in some instances, inaccurate and that the manufacturer failed to identify this issue or advise DOCCS as to the existence of revised or updated instructions.”
The investigation also concluded, in addition to failing to obtain confirmation of presumptively positive NARK II test results, staff administering the tests failed to follow protocols to prevent misidentification of contraband or cross-contamination of samples, undermining the accuracy of even the preliminary results.
Lack of integrity in the systems administered to New Yorkers behind bars implicates all of us,” said New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang. “This investigation and the subsequent policy changes and record expungements represent one step closer to ensuring the level of integrity we should all expect and demand from the State.
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