OLYMPIA – A brand new state agency has just released its first official report, and it contains some potential good news for anyone who’s incarcerated by the Department of Corrections.
The Office Of The Corrections Ombudsman (or OCO) was created last year as an independent, impartial, public official appointed to investigate citizen complaints against the state’s Department of Corrections.
This first report released Monday includes an investigation into our prison’s drug testing procedures.
OCO received several complaints pertaining to Department Of Corrections urinalysis procedures, particularly that inmates were testing positive for substances which they allegedly had not consumed. The positive tests resulted in significant consequences to the inmates, and the inmates did not have the opportunity to request a confirmation test by an outside laboratory.
Following a review, DOC agreed to make several changes to policy to better ensure that no inmate would be held accountable for substances that they had not taken while incarcerated.
The department agreed to make changes by allowing inmates to request confirmation by an outside laboratory for a positive urinalysis result. In addition, DOC will delay THC testing at least 45 days after being incarcerated.