Just Detention International, an organization known for its work in the fight against sexual abuse in prisons, jails, juvenile detention centers and community correction centers has joined with several legal, religious and human rights organizations in an attempt strengthen the Prison Rape Elimination Standards ACT (PREA) of 2003.
Reentry Initiatives are asked for their input during the commenting period which began February 3, 2011 and will end on April 4, 2011. Reentry Central,/b> is sharing the letter from Cynthia Totten, Program Director of JDI with our readers who might be interested in commenting on PREA or learning more about it. Totten’s letter follows.
Greetings,
As part of the re-entry advocacy community, you may be interested to know that a public comment period is currently underway pursuant to the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA) on a proposed set of national, mandatory standards addressing the prevention, detection, response to and monitoring of sexual abuse in all forms of detention, including the many community corrections facilities throughout the nation. The 60-day public comment period was initiated by Attorney General Eric Holder’s office (at the Department of Justice (DOJ)) on February 3, 2011 and will end on April 4, 2011. [His office has revised the set of standards set forth by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC) in 2009, for which there was a public comment period about a year ago.] You will find the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking attached. There are four sets of standards, one each for: adult prisons and jails; police lock-ups; community corrections; and, juvenile detention. The sets of proposed standards are largely the same, with variations depending upon facility type. The proposed community corrections standards start in the Notice at page 6289 (or page 43 in the Adobe Reader format).
We would like to encourage you to review the community corrections standards. For more background, you may find helpful this recent Washington Post piece calling for strong standards to be finalized as soon as possible:
Click here to go to website As was the case during the initial public comment period, it will be very important for members of the reentry community to join the many prisoners’ rights, faith-based, human rights, immigration, LGBT, HIV/AIDS and victim’ rights groups that are rallying in support of adopting strong standards. Commenting on the standards (in support of those you think are helpful and critiquing those that may need to be strengthened) is a singular opportunity to do so. Areas of possible concern with respect to the DOJ’s proposed community corrections standards include:
1) Probation and parole have been excluded from their application; the standards will apply only to residential settings
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2) Section 115.214 of the standards allows for cross-gender pat searches in adult facilities, with the only limitation being for residents who have previously suffered documented cross-gender sexual abuse while incarcerated. Additionally, cross-gender viewing of residents is permitted when it occurs incidental to routine checks of living areas or by accident. [In the NPREC’s proposed standards, cross-gender supervision and pat searches in adult facilities by nonmedical staff were only allowed during emergencies or other extenuating circumstances.]
3) Section 115.222 calls for community corrections agencies to attempt to arrange for residents to be able to make reports of sexual abuse to an outside public entity, except where the agency allows residents to report to an internal entity that is operationally independent [as opposed to an outside reporting entity].
As part of its efforts to bring an end to sexual abuse in all forms of detention, Just Detention International (JDI) (www.justdetention.org) coordinates the Raising the Bar Coalition (the members of which also include the National Prison Project of the ACLU, Amnesty International USA, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Black AIDS Institute, the Washington Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN)). If you are interested in learning more about the Coalition, or have questions about the public comment period and the PREA standards pertaining to community corrections facilities, please contact Nicole de la Torre of JDI at 202-506-3333 or ndelatorre@justdetention.org.
Thank you,
Cynthia.
Cynthia Totten
Program Director
Just Detention International
1900 L St. NW, Suite 601
Washington, DC 20036
tel.: 202-506-3595
fax: 202-506-7971
www.justdetention.org
www.twitter.com/JustDetention
http://www.facebook.com/JDIonFB
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