650 Inmates Still Not Retested Since Discovery of Faked Lab Results in 1996

Four years after a laboratory was shut down for faking the results of medical tests done at state prisons, hundreds of inmates have yet to be retested for AIDS, hepatitis and other serious diseases, according to the state Department of Corrections.

In an examination of its own medical records, the department found that about 650 inmates have not been retested. Officials are working to administer tests to those who need them, said Terry Thornton, a Corrections spokeswoman.

“It’s apparent that the potential for problems is out there,” Thornton said. “We will err on the side of caution.”

The department began sifting through the medical records of the state’s 162,000 prison inmates earlier this summer, after the San Francisco Chronicle disclosed the fake-test scandal involving BCL Clinical Labs of Santa Fe Springs.

So far, a review of the records of 150,000 inmates has turned up more than 4,000 inmates who had medical tests run by BCL, Thornton said. Of those, the department found that most had been retested or that there was no need for repeat tests. And to date, the retests show no one put at risk by the lab scandal, she said.

Only 11 of the state’s 33 prisons used the Southern California lab before it was shut down in 1996 after a state inspection that found employees had turned in fake results on vital medical tests.