Nice information

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any changees

It’s really not that tough to get in compliance. we passed ours because we were on top of it in 2003. Mostly the inspectors are concerned about the policies and then practices. You’d probably be surprised how most of the requirements you already have met with your current in-house policies. It is the law and we must look to meet them. As some of you that have years of experience know there could have been many rapes prevented in both male and female facilities with just simple policies and the participation of officers/staff on preventing them from happening. The death of that Correctional officer in Monroe,WA a couple of years ago may have been prevented had some of these policies and practices been in place. believe it or not some of the recommendations will make our job safer for us. Just saying!!

It is prison. We will do our jobs and stop what we can. But when more than half rape victims do not report and after that males have a much higher no report rate elimination is not going to happen they simply put a universal procedure in place so when sexual abuse is reported it is handled properly and can have a higher chance of leading to a conviction. They want to assure inmates that if they report it will be handled properly. That confidence in theory will lead to more reporting cutting down on the abuse and possible lawsuits. I think the announcement thing is BS but when I hit the compound just to make the females feel less singled out. I announce that a male guard is in the living area when I come on shift.

Sshhh. you don’t want to piss off the armchair quarterbacks of the Gov. making them think they don’t have a clue, do you?. How will they be able to sleep at night.

Does anyone else have those wonderful black boxes on the wall that only the females have to put their MDA’s into to activate a flashing light and irritating screaming noise before they enter a block?? Isn’t this sort of discriminitory? I think they need to microchip the badges of the inmates that are sex offenders and have them put their ID in the box to set off the alarm. After all, it is them who they need to look out for not the females that are entering the block. And really, announcing their is a female on the block does nothing but tell the jackers to get ready.

Gov. Perry wrote a letter to Holder and plainly stated his concerns about PREA and why Texas state institutions were not going to follow PREA. I love this guy!

Perry: Anti-Prison Rape Standards “Impossible”
by Cathaleen Qiao Chen March 31, 2014 14Comments
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Major Michael Gruver in recreation area of Clements Unit® and a Guard tower near front gate of Clements Unit, Texas Department of Corrections (l).
Enlargephoto by: David Bowser
Major Michael Gruver in recreation area of Clements Unit® and a Guard tower near front gate of Clements Unit, Texas Department of Corrections (l).
More than a decade after the Prison Rape Elimination Act unanimously passed Congress, federal standards for implementation of the law have been finalized. Now, Gov. Rick Perry and some prison reform advocates are at odds over what those standards mean for Texas lockups and the taxpayers who pay for them.

In a March 28 letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Perry wrote that while he believed the law was well-intended, he would not certify that the 297 state prisons and local jails that are subject to PREA comply with its regulations come May 15, the certification deadline set by Department of Justice.

The new standards, he wrote, are “impossible,” out of touch with the daily realities of state prisons and would require heavy financial burdens.

“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,” Perry wrote.

But a spokesman for the correctional officers union said that not complying with the federal rules puts Texas at risk financially and legally.

Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the prison system has already made significant progress in meeting PREA standards.

“We are compliant with most of PREA’s standards, except for the cross-gender supervision standard,” Clark said.

That regulation, which is the primary rule to which Perry objects, would prohibit female officers from working in areas where they would see male inmates in private settings, such as the shower. About 40 percent of TDCJ correctional officers at units that house males are female, Perry wrote. PREA standards would force TDCJ to deny female officers jobs and promotion opportunities at those units.

The rules would also require a smaller ratio of correctional officers to juveniles at facilities that house offenders younger than 18. Perry said the cost of meeting that requirement would be unacceptably burdensome to small, local jails.

PREA was enacted in 2003 to reduce sexual assault in prisons and jails, but its regulatory standards weren’t confirmed until February, after the federal government spent 10 years collecting input from experts.

From 2009 to 2011, the number of prison sexual victimization allegations rose by more than 10 percent nationwide, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Texas is among states with the highest levels of inmate-on-inmate sexual assault allegations, including four out of the top 21 facilities between 2011 and 2012.

In his letter, Perry also challenged PREA’s established age of criminal responsibility — 18, compared with Texas’ 17. Compliance with that standard would require Texas to separate inmates, often in smaller facilities, at a substantial cost, he wrote.

But independent of PREA’s mandates, Texas had already adopted its own anti-rape and assault program in 2001. Before President George W. Bushed signed PREA into law, TDCJ established the Safe Prisons Program, a zero-tolerance policy for sexual violence.

“The Texas prison system already realized some time ago that they need to work to create safer environments for inmates,” said Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer at the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

Still, noncompliance with PREA could have financial consequences. It would not only result in a 5 percent reduction of federal funding, but it could make the state vulnerable to lawsuits, said Lance Lowry, president of the Texas correctional employees union.

“The governor’s office has a gross misunderstanding of what the PREA act is all about,” Lowry said. “And the state’s failure to comply with regulation will open up a tremendous amount of liability.”

In recent years, Texas has revamped parole, reduced recidivism, added specialized drug courts and reduced overall prison costs. Still, Deitch said, challenges remain — most importantly, sufficient staffing.

“I think the governor makes a lot of very good points in his letter. He highlights some of the issues that will be hardest for correctional agencies in the state,” Deitch said. “But I think it’s also really important for us to realize that [the state agencies] are already very close to being in compliance now.”

There are lots of fallacie floating around when dealing with HIPAA and Correctional Facilities. Regardless of Correctional Facility or not any injury resulting from any unlawfull activity such as Rape are required to be reported to the Authorities.

45 CFR 164.512 Section (5) Correctional Institutions and other law enforcement custodial situations. (i) Permitted disclosures. A covered entity may disclose to a correctional institution or a law enforcement official having lawful custody of an inmae or other individual protected health information about such inmate or individual, if the correctional institution or such law enforcment official represents that such protected health information is necessary for: (A) The provision of health care to such individuals; (B) The health and safety of such individual or other inmate; © The health and safety of the officers, employees of or others at the correctional institution: (D) The health and safety of such individuals and officers or other persons responsible for the transporting of inmates or their transfer from one institution, facility or setting to another; (E) Law enforcement on the premises of the correctional institution; and for (F) the Administration and maintenance of the safety, security, and good order of the correctional institution. (ii) permitted uses. A covered entity that is a correctional institution may use protected health information of individuals who are inmates for any purpose for which such protected health information may be disclosed.

If an inmate was raped, and he reported it to medical staff, not only does that staff have an ethical responsibility to report it, the also have a legal responsibility and the HIPAA laws allow that report.

Just commenting as a corrections nurse, upon intake screening by medical, the inmate has the opportunity to ask questions regarding rape or molestation. That nurse should also be looking at the inmate to discern whether or not he/she is at risk for being molested due to size, physical appearance and or sexual orientation. The nurse should relay these concerns to the jail administration or classification staff for further handling. I don’t think the government or anyone else thinks that the problem will totally be eliminated, we are just being admonished to be vigilant in preventing it when we can.

I just made a comment on the article about the PREA law on this site. Anytime the US government gets involved you have a major problem. Take for example when an employee in a factory gets hurt by a machine thus OSHA comes in and does a full inspection from top to bottom. While in some respects that inspection may help the business it certainly can be a real pain to try to comply with them. Much the same for the PREA law. How do you expect federal, state and county jails to comply with such a law? How many male or female inmates do you know would be willing to report they were sexually assaulted? The only way an inmate could secretly report such abuse is by telling a nurse, doctor or psychiatrist thus with the federal HIPPA Act they cannot reveal such to anyone, its privileged. It just seems ridiculous to me for the government to expect to totally eliminate rapes and sexual assaults in prisons, that’s not going to happen.

The new PREA law was signed and we now have 60 days to be in compliance with a majority of the new act. On page 88, it discusses the need for an initial sexual abuse assessment, and a follow-up evaluation witin 30 days. Does anyone have a standardized form, or set of questions they use for this? Is there anything approved for use by the NIC or BOP? Thank you.