Drug Testing and the Ordeal of Probation

Think of probation as an enormous testing period: will you be able to adhere to the thicket of conditions governing your daily life? Fail at any of them and you could be sent to prison. At the heart of this testing ethos is drug testing: almost all of the almost three million people on probation in the U.S. are drug tested—peeing in a cup, generally under the observation of a probation officer. The tests are time-consuming, expensive, and traumatic. There is also little evidence justifying their use.

Full show notes

Special issue of the Federal Sentencing Reporter on drug testing and supervision

Hear our 12/23 episode: ex-NYC probation commissioner Vinnie Schiraldi calls for probation’s “incremental abolition”