SANCTIONS FOR POSTIVE DRUG TESTS AND THEIR POTENTIAL NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON PRISONER REINTEGRATION

A prisoner testing positive for drug use will undergo both administrative and/or disciplinary sanctions to modify their behavior toward abstinence. In the institution or community, a prisoner who tests positive for intoxicants will be re-assessed for increased risk, and consequences may include but are not limited to:

• A review of the correctional plan and the modification of the plan where necessary;
• A review of participation in a program of conditional release, including temporary absences, work releases and parole;
• A suspension or recommendation to the National Parole Board to suspend a program of conditional release;
• The restriction of open visits and/or other community contact, including general social events, visits from family or volunteers;
• The restriction of private family visits;
• The denial of all visits;
• The review of security classification and placement which may lead to placement in special facilities
• The referral to relevant programming;
• The suspension from a job that requires a degree of trust or affords freedom of movements throughout the institution, and consequential pay impacts;
• The suspension from a job that requires operation of machinery or heavy equipment with consequential pay impacts;
• The restricted access to work programs in the community
• A review of the inmate’s accounts, including canteen expenditures (CSC 1996).

Inside the institution, the sanctions imposed for an infraction may hamper the reintegration process. Prisoners in lower security settings may be forced to move to institutions with higher security ratings, disrupting their correctional programming. This is problematic because inmates who are moved to higher security levels will have to establish a new relationship with their institutional parole officer who may be unaware of the prisoner’s personal qualities or efforts expended toward rehabilitation. Also, it may take time for the prisoner to come to a place where they feel they can trust or confide in unfamiliar staff members. Secondly, A return to a higher security level exposes a prisoner to greater risk of violence, as inmates with a greater potential for violence are housed in higher security prisons. Thirdly, there is the unintended consequence of placing drug users and drug dealers in the same location. Drug dealers are sent to higher security levels for selling drugs, while drug users are sent to the same higher security ratings for using drugs, effectively placing dealers and users in the same locations. Finally, positive drug tests may preclude prisoners from participating in work programs. This sanction may lead a prisoner to find less pro-social means to earn income, such as drug dealing, thus enabling the exact behaviors that the sanctions were attempting to discourage. In the words of one observer:

Drug dealing provides high incomes, requires no equipment or training, and drugs can be easily passed without detection. In a climate of prohibition, drug costs are high and correctional officers and other staff can be offered high levels of pay for their assistance. The result is an economy that is almost perfect for the prison environment, especially since many of the participants have been involved in dealing before entering the institution (Jürgens 1998:2).

Sanctions imposed for positive urinalysis tests in the community may require that a prisoner be returned to the institution. They may also be dropped from a work program that is designed to give valuable career training to people whose problem, in part, may be from the lack of salable skills, which precludes viable employment in the first place. Sanctions may also force a return from the community where a prisoner spends time to increase positive community contacts and establish family support while partaking in an unescorted temporary absence release. Prisoners on day parole or statutory release may be returned to the institutions either in a temporary detention capacity (30 days), or revocation of parole (90 days, next calculated statutory release date). A return to the institution can be a traumatic experience potentially involving loss of employment, personal property, despair, loss of educational opportunities, and strain on newly developed relationships in the community including family, volunteers and others offering positive support. In addition, prisoners may risk future acceptance to halfway houses where they receive day-to-day support, education, employment help, as well as an opportunity to remain in the community while on day parole.