American Probation and Parole Association's Drug Testing Guidelines and Practices for Adult Probation and Parole Agencies

• NCJ Number: 129199
• Date Published: July 1991
• Length: 164 pages
• Grant Number(s): 88-DD-CX-K008
• Agencies: BJA-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Guideline

Annotation

These guidelines reflect current information on how to use urinalysis in drug testing for offender management in a community-corrections setting.

Abstract

Based on the drug-testing policies and procedures of more than 125 probation and parole agencies nationwide, these guidelines have been reviewed by an advisory committee composed of probation and parole practitioners, legal consultants, and academicians knowledgeable about drug testing; manufacturers of drug-testing equipment; drug testing laboratory personnel; and the American Probation and Parole Association's Board of Directors. The guidelines refer to drug testing only through urinalysis. They are designed to assist agencies across the country to develop judicially acceptable programs that will provide the information required to confirm or deny offender drug use. Drug-testing policies and procedures developed according to these guidelines will enable agencies to withstand any legal challenges of drug test results. The guidelines address the following components of a drug-testing system: agency mission, testing purpose, drug testing policies and procedures, authority to test, the selection of drug-testing methodologies, confirmation, offender selection, drug-testing protocol, instruction to offenders, agency collection sites, custody chain, reporting and use of results, confidentiality, contracting for drug-testing services, onsite instrument-based drug-testing, drug-testing costs, and management information systems.