Maintaining and Exceeding PREA Compliance for Facility and Community Safety

Authorized under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, the FY20 PREA Program: Implementing the PREA Standards, Protecting Inmates, and Safeguarding Communities will assist confinement facilities and the agencies that oversee them in implementing prevention, identification, and response mechanisms that reduce the incidence of sexual abuse in these facilities, and to promote compliance with the PREA standards. Program funds will be used to support efforts of state, local, and tribal jurisdictions to prevent, detect, and respond to sexual abuse in confinement facilities covered by the PREA standards; promote comprehensive implementation of the standards; and enhance community safety by decreasing the likelihood that inmates, residents, and detainees are sexually victimized in confinement facilities prior to release.

The recipient will use funds to assist confinement facilities and the agencies that oversee them in preventing, identifying, and responding to sexual abuse and sexual harassment in these facilities, and to support compliance with the PREA standards. Specifically, a portion of funds will be used to: (1) increase surveillance by reducing blind spots; (2) provide inmates with MDC-specific PREA education with a focus on reporting avenues via video; (3) streamline contractor and volunteer PREA training to reduce burden on PREA Team and prepare contractors and volunteers to enter MDC immediately; (4) identify MDC-specific populations especially vulnerable to sexual abuse; and, (5) improve data collection and management.

CA/NCF