Drug Abuse Numbers In California Prisons Dwarf States Like Texas
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VACAVILLE, CALIFORNIA (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — California inmates are dying of drug overdoses at nearly triple the national rate.
Criticism is mounting about false-positive results by the scanners and dogs that can lead to strip searches.
Concerned lawmakers who oversee state prisons included language in the California budget plan passed this week that would end the searches and require an evaluation of the department's other efforts, "It's a humiliating process, can be easily used to humiliate and demean people, and was only for visitors, often women," Democratic Sen. Loni Hancock, said of the strip searches. "There are many concerns about the dogs, which have historically been emblematic of intimidation of many communities of color, most notably during the civil rights movement."
Staggering Numbers
More than 150 California inmates have died of drug overdoses since 2006, with a high of 24 in 2013. Moreover, the sharing of intravenous needles often spreads hepatitis C infections, which killed 69 inmates in 2013 alone.
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard recently told lawmakers that drugs are "rampant in the prisons," saying, "What we are trying to do is send a message to people to not try to smuggle drugs in to the institution," he said in an interview. "If we don't do this, we're going to have people keep dying, we're going to have continued violence in the prisons."
Beard is modeling California's new procedures on those used successfully in the Pennsylvania corrections department he led for a decade. While California has a long-term annual rate of eight drug- or alcohol-related deaths per 100,000 inmates, Pennsylvania's is one.
Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio and Texas also each averaged one death a year per 100,000 inmates from 2001-2012, according to the most recent national figures. Maryland had the nation's worst rate, at 17 deaths per 100,000 inmates.
Beard said California's program would have more rapid success if lawmakers had given him more money, and he may seek funds to expand the program as early as this fall. He believes the ion scanners — similar to those used to screen airport travelers — are deterring smugglers. The lack of results may be because only about 5 percent of visitors and employees are being scanned, he said, though the eventual goal is 30 percent. By contrast, Pennsylvania scanned 68 percent of visitors last year and at least 20 percent of employees.
Records show the German shepherd and similar looking dogs long used in California prisons have been effective at rooting out hidden drugs. But to search visitors, employees and inmates the department is turning to less aggressive dogs including Labrador retrievers — "fluffy, friendly dogs," Northern California canine program coordinator Sgt. Brian Pyle said.
The decision to use dogs to search humans, instead of unoccupied spaces as was previously the policy, prompted the resignation last fall of Wayne Conrad, the department's statewide canine program coordinator. He criticized the expense of sending California dog handlers to Pennsylvania for training, the use of breeds that he said are less reliable, and what he said was a supervisor's effort to stifle concerns about the program because it was championed by Beard, "The dogs are going to start alerting on people whose kids are smoking dope or something," and that false positive could prompt an unnecessary strip search, Conrad said. "The next thing that's going to come is the lawsuits."
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