Reducing Substance Use in Prison: The California Department of Corrections Drug Reduction Strategy Project

Abstract

Inmate welfare, staff security, public health concerns, and the need for recovery-friendly prison environments have been cited as supporting efforts to control in prison substance use. This article reports on the California Department of Corrections (CDC) Drug Reduction Strategy Project, which involved systematic random urine testing and drug interdiction measures. The two-phase evaluation took place at four CDC institutions, with three serving as test sites and one serving as a standard-procedures comparison site. The results of Phase I, random urine testing of 150 inmates per week from the eligible inmate general population, supported the effectiveness of systematic random urine testing in reducing in-prison substance use, as measured by the number of inmates refusing to test or testing positive for illicit substances. The results of Phase II, which involved continued random urine testing at the three test sites in addition to K-9 drug detection teams at one institution and drug detection equipment at another institution, led to further reductions in substance use, but few drug finds resulted from the additional interdiction measures.