30 brave Republican Senators stand by their conservative principles...

[Winehole23]

And ongoing PREA education, in 2009.

[Winehole23]

game changer?

http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/pre...nition-of-rape

[Winehole23]

Eight years after Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act, the Department of Justice is finally on the verge of implementing it with a series of new guidelines and auditing techniques to try to reduce sexual assaults against inmates in federal custody.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...ess/51751892/1

[Winehole23]

Nearly 9,000 incidents of sexual victimization against inmates in U.S. prisons and jails were reported in 2011, with roughly half of them involving corrections staff, according to a report by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The number of incidents showed a "significant increase" over about 8,400 incidents reported in 2010 and 7,855 reported in 2009, it said. The year 2011 was the most recent cited in the bureau study, published on Thursday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...A0N1M420140124

[Fabbs]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...A0N1M420140124

More than three-quarters of staff perpetrators resigned or were fired, and nearly half were arrested, prosecuted or convicted, the study found.

I'm blown away that any kind of action was taken against more then 2% of the perps.

[Winehole23]

yep

[Winehole23]

The federal Prison Rape Elimination Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2003, but the rules governing its implementation were not completed until June 2012 and standards governing audits of state facilities weren't finalized until August 2013. Governor Rick Perry today sent a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder, forwarded by a confidant to your correspondent, declaring Texas would not comply. Here's a notable excerpt:

Because PREA standards prohibit most cross-gender viewing, TDCJ would be compelled to deny female officers job assignments and promotion opportunities, simply based on their gender. A consultant referred to TDCJ by the PREA Resource Center absurdly suggested that TDCJ solve this proglem by removing security camersas and obstructing lines of sight. That is ridiculous. Doing so would not only be a security risk for both prisoners and staff but also increase the likelihood of assaults taking place, defeating the intent of the law.


PREA also infringes on Texas' right to establish the state's own age of criminal responsibility. That age in Texas is 17. PREA, unlike the JJDP Act, which recognizes each state's age of full criminal responsibility, makes no allowances for differences among the states. PREA sight and sound separation standards would require Texas to separate 17-year old adult inmates from 18-year old adult inmates at substantial cost with no discernible benefit to the state or its inmates.


PREA standards also set specific staffing ratios for juvenile detention facilities different from the state's current rate. While this ratio may be ideal in some facilities, the decision of what cons utes appropriate staffing ratios should be left to each state and to those professionals with operational knowledge. One of Texas' 254 counties has said that compliance with this standard would require them to hire 30 more detention officers. That is an unacceptable cost for a small county with a limited budget. ...


PREA standards also mandate that by May 15, 2014, the governor of each state must certify, under threat of criminal penalties, that all facilities under the governor's control are compliant with PREA standards. Texas has approximately 297 facilities subject to PREA, including 164 lock-up facilities. PREA requires one-third of these facilities to be audited each year, yet no audit tool for lock-ups has even been developed. There is no way that I will certify compliance for facilities that have not even been audited. The compliance and certification deadline is further complicated by the fact that PREA requires states to conduct audits by PREA-certified auditors. There are only about 100 PREA-certified auditors nationwide, and the first of those were not certified until late 2013.


Even if the manifest problems with PREA standards I laid out above did not exist, I cannot and will not certify as true those things for which I do not have the facts.


Washington has taken an opportunity to help address a problem in our prisons and jails, but instead created a counterproductive and unnecessarily bersome and costly regulatory mess for the states.


I encourage the administration to change these standards and do so soon. Absent standards that acknowledge the operational realities in our prisons and jails, I will not sign your form and I will encourage my fellow governors to follow suit. In the meantime, Texas will continue the programs it has already implemented to reduce prison rapes.

Fascinating. Perry's letter portrayed this as an Obama Administration initiative but really it's his Texas gubernatorial predecessor-turned-president whose policy he's snubbing.

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.co...h-federal.html

[boutons_deux]

what about rapes in juvenile and undoc immigrant detention centers?

[Winehole23]

what about it, boutons?

[boutons_deux]

what about it, boutons?

it happens, a lot. "Do Your Own Research" -- WC

[Winehole23]

I've posted on TYC problems here. Do you have a point?

[Winehole23]

I'm not clairvoyant. Quit waving your hands and make your damn point.