Prison Rape Elimination Act

Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2003 to address the epidemic of rape and sexual assault in our nation’s detention centers. In 2012, the Department of Justice announced long-awaited rules for complying with the law, representing the first time that the federal government has issued national standards to help end sexual abuse in prisons, jails and youth detention centers. Unfortunately the DOJ rules do not apply to immigration detention facilities. Rather, the Obama administration has tasked the Department of Homeland Security – which has a dismal record of policing its immigration jails and facilities – with making its own rules for complying with PREA.

05/17/2012

The Shameful Index of Prison Rape - Action on PREA Can End the Violence

By Amy Fettig, ACLU National Prison Project & Jennifer Wedekind, National Prison Project at 4:29pm

Today the Department of Justice released the long-awaited Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) regulations, representing the first time that the federal government has issued national standards to help end sexual abuse in correctional facilities. The regulations are two years late and a lot of harm has been done in their absence, but now that they’ve finally been released they can help us protect important constitutional and human rights and ensure safe and fair correctional facilities that assist prisoners in rehabilitation rather than needlessly brutalizing them. The ACLU supports the Department’s efforts to protect and prevent sexual abuse in places of detention, although we regret that immigration facilities are not yet included in these standards.

05/21/2012

Prison Rape Elimination Act

PREA Rule: DOJ Takes First Steps to Protect Prison Rape Victims

By Amy Fettig, ACLU National Prison Project at 12:05pm

Last Thursday’s release of the long-delayed national Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) regulations by the Department of Justice reminds us of the hundreds of prison rape victims we’ve heard from over the years who could not seek justice because the prison officials who failed to protect them were essentially immunized from liability by a 1996 federal law, the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). The announced purpose of the PLRA was to curb the filing of frivolous litigation by prisoners. In reality, the law makes it

05/30/2012

Prison Rape Elimination Act

Justice Department Takes First Steps to Protect Kids from Rape

By Amy Fettig, ACLU National Prison Project at 11:41am

In 2003, Congress took an important first step in addressing a national tragedy: epidemic levels of rape and sexual abuse in our nation’s prisons, jails and youth detention centers. The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), passed unanimously in Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush, called for the development of binding national standards for the prevention, detection, response and monitoring of sexual violence behind bars. After nine years, these standards were finally released by the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this month. They represent the first national effort to hold correctional facilities accountable for abuse while at the same time instituting policies and procedures that will help prevent abuse in the first place.

05/21/2012

Prison Rape Elimination Act

One Year Longer? Why Won’t DHS Protect Its Detainees under the Prison Rape Elimination Act Right Now?

By Chris Rickerd, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:18pm

The Prison Rape Elimination Act was passed by a unanimous Congress in 2003, with regulations due by June 2010. It was clearly intended to cover all detainees, civil and criminal. Two years later, the Obama administration at last released the final implementing rules for PREA. Commendably, the Department of Justice reversed its prior position that PREA doesn’t cover all immigration detainees. Yet the Department of Homeland Security – despite an abysmal track record of preventing and investigating sexual abuse and assault in its facilities, which was recently exposed on PBS’s Frontline – got a 360-day extension on PREA compliance.

05/21/2012

Prison Rape Elimination Act

New Federal Standards Offer Unprecedented Protections to LGBTI Prisoners

By Leslie Cooper, LGBT Project at 2:25pm

Yesterday the Department of Justice (DOJ) released the long-awaited National Standards to Prevent, Detect, and Respond to Prison Rape. These standards – the first of their kind—create an historic opportunity to put an end to the epidemic of sexual abuse in prison, which disproportionately affects prisoners who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or have intersex conditions (LGBTI).

10/26/2011

Prison Rape Elimination Act

Battling Prison Rape: Immigration Detainees Deserve Protection, Too

By Joanne Lin, Washington Legislative Office at 3:02pm

Excluding immigration detention from prison rape standards that prevent, detect and respond to sexual assault in custody is unjustifiable and unconscionable.

12/02/2011

Prison Rape Elimination Act

Justice for All Victims of Sexual Assault

By Georgeanne M. Usova, Washington Legislative Office at 12:57pm

Last week, President Obama signed a bill in honor of Kate Puzey, a 24-year-old Peace Corps volunteer who was murdered while serving in West Africa.

10/31/2011

Prison Rape Elimination Act

Trauma Compounded: The Plight of LGBT Immigration Detainees

By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:00pm

While it is true that physical and sexual abuse is one of the most serious problems for LGBT detainees, it is by no means the only concern facing them.

10/28/2011

Immigration Detention

This Week in Civil Liberties (10/28/11)

By Rekha Arulanantham, ACLU at 6:29pm

In which states did ACLU lawsuits put a halt to suspicionless, mandatory drug testing?

Which Senators are working to show that the Patriot Act has a secret interpretation that violates the rights of American citizens?

What can be done to protect immigration detainees vulnerable to being sexually abused while in detention?

Victories in Florida and Missouri: No Illegal Drug Testing
On Monday we got some great news in Florida: following an ACLU lawsuit, the state will no longer be allowed to make people applying for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) take a drug test in order to get the assistance they need. And in Missouri on Tuesday, a federal judge ruled a policy at Linn State Technical College that would have mandated students pass a drug test as a condition of enrollment is clearly unconstitutional.

10/25/2011

Prison Rape Elimination Act

Immigration Detainees Fear Rape and Death

By Lisa Graybill, ACLU of Texas at 5:45pm

Government documents obtained by the ACLU contain nearly 200 allegations of sexual abuse of immigration detainees jailed at detention facilities across the nation.

American Civil Liberties Union