The national standards currently before Attorney General Eric Holder were released by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission in June 2009. The standards were mandated by the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), which Congress passed unanimously in 2003. They are the product of several years of research and extensive consultation with corrections professionals, researchers, advocates, and survivors of sexual abuse in detention. By law, the Attorney General had until June 23, 2010 to review the standards. However, Holder has missed this deadline, and he has told Congress that he will need more time, perhaps as much as a year, before issuing his final rule.

The standards currently before Holder represent a hard-reached compromise, balancing the rights of inmates with security interests and other concerns of detention facilities. Among other things, they call on corrections agencies to establish zero-tolerance for sexual abuse, to strengthen policies and practices, to improve staff training, to hold perpetrators accountable, and to open facilities up to external scrutiny.

If fully approved and implemented, these basic common-sense measures will dramatically lower the rate of sexual abuse in U.S. detention facilities, and improve the response to detainees who have been victimized. Indeed, the national standards represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stimulate the correctional sea change needed to prevent and address rape and other forms of sexual abuse in U.S. detention.

No matter what crime a person may have committed, rape should never be part of the punishment. The Attorney General must act quickly to adopt the standards; every day without them is another day during which countless adults and children are victimized.

For more information, including how to join the coalition, please contact Nicole de la Torre, ndelatorre@justdetention.org, 202-580-6934.