Prison Rape Elimination Act

Words: 1734
Pages: 7
Open Document
Though it is considered “an accepted fact of prison life” (Dumond 2003, 354), male inmate rape in American prisons is an issue that must be taken more seriously. It is considered a foregone conclusion that new inmates will be sexually assaulted when they enter prison, and their experiences often end up becoming the punchline to a joke. How lightly the problem is taken makes it difficult to institute real change that will prevent sexual assault. It is very important, then, to make it known that prison rape is a problem that people need to care about and change. There is policy in place to prevent assaults of this kind, but it does not seem to be solving the problem. Therefore, I suggest that reform be tested on a smaller, more concentrated scale …show more content…
It was passed in 2003 by President George W. Bush and a unanimous Congress after a year of tweaking. PREA has a host of standards, involving preventive and responsive planning, training and education for wardens and inmates, screening for abuse, proper protocol following a report, investigations and discipline, medical and mental care, data review, audits, and state compliance (Unites States Department of Justice 2012, 2-4). The program has not yet been put into full effect, and implementing it across the entire U.S. prison system has been slow going. There are so many prisons and so many incarcerated persons that changing policy throughout the American prison system is a massive undertaking. Because PREA in all its parts has not yet reached all incarceration facilities, it is hard to tell whether or not the policy is helping. What we do know is prison rape rates are not going down and allegations are not at the amount that researchers hypothesize them to …show more content…
According to their statistics, the number of alleged sexual assaults made by inmates rose by about 700 from 2009 to 2011 (Rantala 2014, 7-12) and this can be attributed to more comfort with reporting, but the numbers are still not quite where it is estimated they should be. One of the earliest studies on prison rape found that while less than 1% of the 3,304 inmates surveyed admitted to being victims, the researchers estimated that two-thirds of the population were actually victims (Hensley et al. 2005, 668-669). The American government does not like to endorse things that do not work, especially when it costs taxpayers money. My four proposed test cases will allow for small-scale testing of certain methods to curb sexual assault. If three out the four prisons are not seeing results from a particular method, it will be assumed the problem is with the intervention, and it can be changed without having to reform thousands of prisons. Having these methods tested on such a small scale is attractive to federal policy makers, who want proof that the intervention will work before implementing it across the country. This also prevents bureaucratic roadblocks in the case of an intervention not working, or the overall plan needing to be
Show More

Related Documents: Prison Rape Elimination Act

An Introduction To Ethics And Social Responsibilities

department of corrections in the United States. Over the last few decades, the rights and treatment of prisoners has changed to become more realistic. Twenty years ago protections of inmates, or cases brought up by inmates of things that have happened in prisons we over looked and not take seriously. Due to the changes in human rights standards we have reformed the way we handle the inmates who come thru the system, and one day if not receiving a life sentence or the death penalty will later become a functioning…

Words 2410 - Pages 10

Juvenile Prison Rehabilitation

consequences of their actions and they lack the same capacity to be tried as an adult. The juvenile prison system can help kids turn their lives around rehabilitation gives kids a second chance. It is wrong to hold children…

Words 1531 - Pages 7

Juvenile Justice: Protective Factors

it is a program which is changing Adre in to a better man who cares for people and who doesn’t want to be a part of gangs anymore. Had this protective factor not been there, Adre would have had a greater chance to get into more trouble or sent to prison for a very long…

Words 834 - Pages 4

Juvenile Crimes In Adult Prisons

However, even though the adult system is not suited for juveniles, in some cases the courts may sentence juveniles to adult prison facilities. Adult prison facilities could deem fatal for a young offender. Lack of education, sexual abuse, and mental health problems, which could lead to suicide. The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, expresses that in adult prisons, juveniles are 5 times more subjected to sexual attacks than in juvenile facilities. (Parsell, 2012) Following the modern crime…

Words 362 - Pages 2

Essay on Prison and Prison Society Course

12 INCARCERATION AND PRISON SOCIETY Course Outline I. Introduction: The modern prison • Maximum security prisons prior to the 1950s was a massive wall institution • In the South the massive wall were less common as prisoners worked outside on large farms • The 1960s saw a move toward rehabilitation and “correctional institutions” • Since the 1970s minority representation has increased and gangs have raised the level of violence in prisons II. Goals of incarceration…

Words 959 - Pages 4

Malefaction In Prisons

life of malefaction. Prisons have gang ravishes, more rigorous murderers, and child molesters just aching for a thirteen year who purloined or attempted murder to walk in. To date, there's no extensive research comparing the lengths of prison sentences received by juveniles convicted in criminal court with those who remained in the juvenile system (PBS). Extensive research done on this topic has proven that juveniles convicted in adult court and sentenced to mundane prisons end up going back to…

Words 1239 - Pages 5

Essay about Crime and Judicial Process

that committed felony offenses, but in most cases, not all the youths would warrant aggravated felony charge as if they were an adult. The U.S. juvenile justice system is currently designed to address the special needs of minors who engage in criminal acts, but may not be held fully responsible for their behavior as they are not yet legal adults recognized by society. Even before in 1998 the Supreme Court had banned the execution of teenagers who are under sixteen for their crimes (Liptak). Between 1992…

Words 1414 - Pages 6

Essay on VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

her boyfriend and forced to become pregnant, for every child who witnesses his or her parents hit each other, we lose as a society. Violence against women is not an act against an individual woman; it is an attack against us all-to our country, to our community, to our loved ones. THE ANTI VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND THEIR CHILDREN ACT OF 2004 (THESIS)- Offelia Valdez Inway(March 2010) A known writer and feminist psychologist in the name of Anita Hill wrote that “women and children who tell are not…

Words 7929 - Pages 32

Similarities Between Anaritarianism And Capitalistism

ANARCHISM-vs-CAPITALISM FUNDAMENTALS OF ANARCHISM WHY ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN? ANARCHISM-vs-CAPITALISM Historically and currently the Anarchist Movement has consisted overwhelmingly of socialists. Today for instance there are Anarchist organizations of over 10,000 members that are also trade unions in Sweden and Spain. There are many other organizations with memberships in the hundreds in most countries world-wide. All of these organizations are explicitly anarchist, revolutionary and Anti-Capitalist…

Words 3766 - Pages 16

What Is Dnatested?

dot-com hiring sprees of the mid-1990s. public crime-lab refrigerators across the country, huge backlogs of DNA evidence now sit unprocessed because of shortfalls in state and local funding. The samples are grim reminders of the sorts of violent crime—rapes, sexual assaults, and nonfatal stabbings and shootings—that continue to plague U.S. citizens. No one has a good handle on the exact size of the DNA evidence backlog, says Lisa Foreman, deputy director of the Investigative & Forensic Sciences Division…

Words 3354 - Pages 14