The Commission on Prison Rape Elimination has issued final standards for community corrections, and to introduce you to these new requirements Jane Browning, Executive Director of the International Community Corrections Association and Lusanne Green, Executive Director of the Ohio Community Corrections Association, will walk you through the basics. What are the fundamental principles of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA)? How does the law apply to community corrections? What are your legal obligations under the new law? And what are the most effective strategies for meeting the standards in a forthright and efficient manner?
Moderator: Jane Browning, Executive Director, International Community Corrections Association, Washington, D.C.
Speakers: Bryan Black, Clinical Operations and Accreditations Manager, Talbert House, Cincinnati, Ohio; Lusanne Greene, Executive Director. Ohio Community Corrections Association, Columbus Ohio
PROBLEM RECONFIRMED 1923/1934
Joseph Fishman visited 1,500 U.s. jails and prisons..... visited 1500 facilities.
Modern day: Society condones Seexual Assault in Prisons
Subject of late night comics jokes. A board game that centers around prisoner rape.
Prison Rape is not a joke.. it is serious business.
Domestic violence used to be accepted and joked about. Now it isn’t. It is taken seriously. Prison Rape is analogous to how the public used to regard the issue of Domestic Violence.
Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 -
Issue of staff sexual misconduct and prisoner sexual violence.
ELEMENT OF THE LAW
- Abuse by offenders or staff is covered.
- Applies to everyone who holds people in custody.
- Problems associated with prison rape
- High levels of violence with in facilities
- Increased health and mental health care expenditures
- Public Health Concerns - STDs
The Bureau of Justice Statistics suggests that 4.5 percent of those incarcerated have been victims of sexual assault.
Anyone can be at risk, but certain inmates are more likely to impacted.
- The young
- First timers
- Non-gang affiliated
- Mentally challenged.
- Causes: In adequate facilities/programs
- Lack of adequate supervision
- Gags of arrestors
- Overcrowding
- Inadequate classification
- Withdrawal of surveillance
- Architectural features.
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Code of Silence among inmates and among staff
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PREA AND COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS
The PREA has different standards for different entities.
These are the standars for community corrections.
PREA Community Corrections Standards were roposed in June, 2008.
Divisions were based on input from the field. Standards are expected to be finalized in 2009
Prevention and response planning
Prevention
Needs to have a zero tolerance policy
All, including vendors, must have compliance with PREA standards
Does the facility provide the supervision of defendant or offenders necessary to protect them from sexual abuse?
Except in case of emergency, does the facility restrict cross-gender viewing by non-medical staff of defendants who are nude or performing bodily functions.
Firing decisions - presumption that anyone with a prior conviction for sexual misconduct, not hired, also those have been found guilty of sexual misconduct.
Protocols for Medial and Forensic exams - investigations in the allegations need to be in a timely manner and agencies must try to get law enforcement to comply.
Prevention
Training and Education. - Staff, volunteers, offenders, etc.
Screening for risk of sexual victimization and abusiveness
Female staff are overwhelmingly convicted of sexual misconduct.
Detection and response reporting.
Should be easy to report.
Provisions should be made for a report to an outside official or office not affiliated with the agency.
Does staff accept reports made verbally?
First responder: agency protection for the reporter to avoid retaliation
Monitoring -Data Collection
Sexual incident reviews
Data Collection/review/storage, publication and destruction - all personal identifiers removed sent, published annual in aggregate paper copies or website.
How are we going to implement? Do we have to?
Prison in name doesn’t have a impact as to whether it applies or not. Prison in name of act doesn’t limit it to prisons. It does apply to community corrections.
Different “softer” standards custom made for Community Corrections.
Different states, different definitions for community corrections.
State laws are all over the place and across the board. PREA is attempting to apply a uniform national standard.
Community Corrections programs are already doing a lot of it if in compliance with ACA standards.
What needs to be done?
- Adopt a screen tool for risk of victimization and abusiveness.
- Train staff of sexual abuse and recognition of abuse.
- Change or create policy detailing procedures.
- Demonstrate collaboration with outside agencies (MOUs) (need to try -- even if they won’t give you an MOU)
- Develop protocol for reporting statistics. (look for local government and other agencies for coming up with a reporting method or standard.)
We Know PREA stresses the importance of the role of the first responder.
Train staff:
- Control the scene
- Preserve the evidence
- Don’t be the investigator
Assess:
Develop risk assessment tool
- “Red Flags” from NIC
- “The Dirty dozen” from the Washington State Dept. of Corrections
The Red Flgs are events, actions, or acitivities that can tip you off to the ossibility of misconduct.
- Offender grapevine, offender sintches, and offener/staff roumers.
- Hosre-play
- Offenders knowing personal information about staff members
- Staff isolation from other staff.
- Staff transporting offenders in a personal vehicle
- Staff accepting or giving gifts to offenders
- Staff allowing the offender perform a personal service for them, such as car repair or housing cleaning
- staff spending and explainable amount of time with an offender.
- Drastic behavior or appearance change on the part of the offender or staff - dress, makeup, hair, ect.
- Staff can’t account for time.
- Staff confronting staff over an offender
- Overheard conversations between staff and offenders which is sexualized in nature or about physical appearance.
Myths:
- We don’t have this problem.
- Employees know the boundaries.
- Sexual misconduct is caused by cross gender supervision.
- Employees will tell on their peers if something is going on.
- New employees are the only ones that are at risk of this.
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Nothing is mandated at this point because the standards are still under development. It is time to plan based on obvious requirements.
websites:
PREA web: www.nprec.us
National Institute of Corrections. www.NICIC.org
Bureau of Justice Statistics. www.ojp.usdoj.gov
jbrowning@iccaweb.org - email to get on an electronic newsletter distribution list and receive other materials.
Blogged by Dr. Allen Moore, JD, APR - Orange County (FL) Corrections Department
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