The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Congress authorized the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission to conduct the study and to issue binding standards for corrections agencies that will have the force of law. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. will have one year to codify anti-sexual assault procedures, and state governors will have an additional year to signal their compliance with those standards or risk losing up to 5 percent of federal financing for corrections.

The commission recommended that agencies improve training for prison and jail employees for better detection of assaults, do a better job of classifying vulnerable inmates, reduce jail and prison overcrowding, and improve medical and psychological services for victims of sexual abuse.

Although most sexual assaults in prison involve inmates attacking fellow inmates, the commission also recommended stiffer penalties for correctional officials who tolerate or engage in abuse.

The commission said it was particularly concerned about sexual assaults among the rising numbers of juveniles confined in adult institutions and among immigrant detainees, many of whom avoid reporting crimes for fear of deportation.

The commission’s chairman, Judge Reggie B. Walton of the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., said in an interview Monday that despite a 2003 law intended to provide safeguards against sexual assaults, prison rapes had become almost a cliché in public discourse.

“The sad reality is that there has been indifference by some people associated with the system,” Judge Walton said.

He said a lack of resources and a “get-tough attitude on crime” by some politicians had led to increased penalties without providing for expanding prison and jail populations.

“Seems to me that at the same time we’re increasing penalties we should study the impact those new penalties are going to have and how they’re going to potentially create unsafe environments for people,” Judge Walton said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/us/23prison.html?_r=1&ref=global-home