Adult Prisons and Jails with Immigration Supplement Lockups Juvenile Facilities Community Corrections

National Prison Rape Elimination Commission logo

Standards:

For The Prevention, Detection, Response, and Monitoring of
Sexual Abuse in:

Adult Prisons and Jails

 

INTRODUCTION

Sexual abuse of people in confinement violates their basic human rights, impedes the likelihood of their successful reentry into the community, and violates the Government’s obligation to provide safe and humane conditions of confinement. No prison sentence, regardless of the crime, should ever include rape. A core priority of any confinement facility must be safety, which means protecting the safety of all—the public, the staff, and the inmate population. In recognition of this, Congress formed the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC or Commission) to develop national standards that will help eliminate prison rape and other forms of sexual abuse in confinement.

The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003 requires agencies to comply with the national standards proposed by the Commission and approved and promulgated by the Attorney General to eliminate sexual abuse in confinement. Fundamental to an agency’s success will be its commitment to zero tolerance of sexual abuse—a recognition that sexual abuse in confinement facilities is unacceptable under any circumstances and as dangerous a threat to institutional security as an escape or homicide. Agencies must demonstrate zero tolerance not merely by words and written policy, but through their actions, including what they do to prevent sexual abuse and their response when it occurs.

The standards developed by NPREC are organized as follows:

Standard Statement:
Mandatory

Assessment Checklist:
Not mandatory: tool for tracking compliance

Discussion:
Not mandatory: provides commentary and guidance

Each standard statement contains mandatory requirements. Under each standard statement is an assessment checklist. The assessment checklists are designed as a tool for agencies and facilities to self-assess and track their progress toward meeting the standards. They are also meant to be a starting point for the external audit of a facility’s compliance with the standards. The agency head, facility head, PREA coordinator, or a designee must complete the assessment checklists for every standard. Although answering “yes” to each checklist item is not mandatory, meeting the requirements in the standard is mandatory. Therefore, when completing a given checklist, if an official answers “no” to a checklist question but believes the facility/agency is meeting the requirements of the standard using a different process or procedure, he or she should explain how the alternative process or procedure meets the standard. The PREA coordinator or other official should attach documentation of compliance with the standard to the checklist unless compliance is self-evident.

After each assessment checklist is a discussion of the standard. Discussion sections provide explanation for the rationale of the standard and, in some cases, offer guidance for achieving compliance with it. Although the discussion sections sometimes offer further clarification on the meaning of terms or phrases used in the standard, the glossary should be used as the primary source for the meaning of terms or phrases. The discussion sections do not contain any additional mandatory requirements. When mandatory requirements are mentioned in a discussion section, they have been drawn directly from the standard statement.

In crafting these standards, NPREC has kept in mind the following overarching considerations: (1) agency and facility heads should retain the flexibility, responsibility, and authority to establish systems, practices, and protocols that will eliminate sexual abuse in their confinement facilities; (2) successful compliance with the standards and elimination of sexual abuse require ongoing systemic efforts to assess and adjust policies, practices, and the allocation of resources to address problems and improve safety; and (3) greater transparency of the agency’s sexual abuse data and efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to sexual abuse will improve public trust and confidence in our Nation’s prisons and jails and aid in the elimination of sexual abuse in confinement.

These standards are the product of lengthy study, consultation, and reflection. The Commission held eight public hearings, during which more than 100 witnesses testified, including corrections leaders, survivors of sexual abuse in confinement, researchers, investigators, prosecutors, and advocates for victims and the incarcerated. In addition, the Commission convened expert committees comprising similarly diverse stakeholders with broad correctional expertise to help inform the content of the standards during the drafting process. Site visits to a cross-section of confinement facilities enabled the Commission to receive feedback on the draft standards from a variety of corrections officials. NPREC also conducted a thorough review of the literature and commissioned its own research to address some of the unanswered questions about the causes and consequences of sexual abuse in confinement. Finally, during its 60-day public comment period, the Commission received and considered comments on the standards, many extensive in nature, from more than 225 individuals or entities representing a wide range of perspectives.

The Commission believes that full adoption of these standards by all of the Nation’s prisons and jails is necessary to achieve the elimination of sexual abuse in confinement facilities as Congress intended in passing PREA.