More than 1,100 inmates in Massachusetts prisons and county jails were convicted based on potentially tainted evidence from the state drug lab, officials disclosed Monday, providing the most troubling estimate yet of the damage from the growing scandal.
David E. Meier, a former veteran prosecutor appointed by the Patrick administration to lead the review of potentially thousands of mishandled cases, said staffers worked over the weekend to identify 690 people now in state prison and 450 in county jails or houses of correction because of evidence that was analyzed by a former state chemist identified as Annie Dookhan, when she served as the primary or secondary chemist in all of those people’s cases.
Comments
First comment is that I just got a (full page) script error posting my first comment. So, looks like I will have to do it in pieces.
"Law enforcement officials are grappling with the revelation that a chemist in charge of testing seized drugs at a state drug lab mishandled evidence. Chemist Annie Dookhan may have handled 60,000, in 34,000 cases. Some or all of that evidence may be tainted." The Globe continues to ignore the fact (and my comments to the effect that) ALL of the drug tests may have been corrupted. It has already been admitted that Annie Dookhan had UNSUPERVISED ACCESS to the samples lockers. How does anyone know that she did not also contaminate the other samples?
One thing that needs to be done is for the percentage of samples tested POSITIVE to be calculated FOR EACH CHEMIST. They should have had similar results if things were not being manipulated, should they not?
The next thing that needs to be done is to find out other state's and the federal positive sampling rate for different chemists. They would not be expected to vary greatly for states with similar populations and similar police enforcement. For the purposes of this comparison it will have to be assumed that sampling in other venues has been done honestly. We know the POSITIVES rate will be much higher for Annie Dookhan. If the percentage of POSITIVES is greater for any of the other JP chemists then the conclusion is that the tests were manipulated, and the only question is who did it, Annie Dookhan or the chemist who signed the test.
By the way, the Globe keeps stressing that the people being let out of prison are violent and/or felons. I see that as an attempt to scare the public. Yes, they many be felons for getting caught with drugs, but that does not make them violent. Yes, they may be big drug dealers who might be violent with other drug dealers or those that don't pay, but they are not completely stupid I would guess and would not be out to kill random members of the public. Anyway, as the Globe knows well, the Big Drug Dealers are mostly out, having paid big fines in the plea bargain to serve only a short time in jail. The ones in jail are the ones without much money -- ie, the ones who are less dangerous.
There are thousands of cases affected. Is the Globe going to run a story on each one? For a limited newsroom staff, it seems like a waste of manpower. Maybe a weekly or monthly run down might be more informative than a daily trickle, and allow a reporter to follow something more timely.
What about the state Department of Public Health lab at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst? The Western Massachusetts laboratory is used to analyze drugs confiscated by police. The lab employs several chemists and an evidence technician, and was performing 4,000 to 5,000 tests of drugs each year (2009 stats) for municipal police departments in Western Massachusetts. The lab analyzes and weighs illegal drugs such as LSD, cocaine, heroin and other drugs seized in criminal cases. Authorities use the lab's reports in trials, grand jury investigations and other criminal investigations.
Is it possible the Western Mass is in the same poor operating condition as Jamaica Plain? Perhaps, they don't have checks & balances, and Policies & Procedures to ensure the Laboratory is operating without gross errors!
But really, how is it possible that the Department of Public Health is responsible for monitoiring Standards of Practice for the Hospital laboratories, Clinic Laboratories and 'free' standing labs., and fails to ensure the laboratory standards meet criteria in their own house? Too many Managers (not knowing what to do or how to do it) and too few gophers to process an impossible workload.
Cantabrigian01 wrote, "Is it possible the Western Mass is in the same poor operating condition as Jamaica Plain? Perhaps, they don't have checks & balances, and Policies & Procedures to ensure the Laboratory is operating without gross errors!"
Great question. If upper management was the same, and that resulted in lack of supervision in JP then the answer is probably that it depends on luck. If the lower level managers in Amherst did a good job then things might be in good shape, if not, then it might be even worse than the purported situation in JP (the tentative hypothesis that it was ONLY annie Dookhan in JP who was not honest).
What was the percentage of positive test resuts for each chemist in Amherst?
So let's see, that's what -- $50K per prisoner (estimate) x 1,140 prisoners == $557 Million saved per year! Of course you have to pay the attorneys and judges and clerks but those are front-loaded and shorter-term costs.
Oops, that's $55.7 million per year -- hey, not so much!