The Iowa Department of Corrections will make statewide changes to how inmates are tested and disciplined for drug use following a legal settlement approved Tuesday involving three women incarcerated at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women.

The settlement was approved by the Iowa State Appeal Board and resolves claims brought by inmates Amanda Wright, Monica Fagan, and Cheyanne Harris, who argued they were wrongly punished after receiving false-positive drug test results. The women were represented by the ACLU of Iowa.

According to the settlement, the Department of Corrections had relied on rapid immunoassay field tests without laboratory confirmation, despite concerns that certain prescription medications could trigger false positives for illegal drug use.

The three inmates were originally found guilty of disciplinary violations by prison administrative law judges. Those penalties can carry serious consequences, including loss of earned time that may reduce a sentence, longer incarceration, solitary confinement, and the loss of work, educational opportunities, and other privileges. Appeals to the prison warden were denied before the women filed post-conviction relief applications in Polk County District Court last spring.

Under the agreement, the Department of Corrections will remove the disciplinary records from the women’s files and implement two major policy changes across Iowa prisons.

The department will now use a “greater weight of evidence” standard for major disciplinary violations rather than the previous “some evidence” standard. The DOC also agreed to adopt more accurate drug testing methods and move away from rapid field kits that have produced high rates of false positives.

As part of the settlement, Wright will receive just over $92, Harris will receive more than $1,400, and Fagan will receive nearly $20.