It’s time to end prisoner rape

Opinion: April 21, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By Lovisa Stannow

McClatchy-Tribune

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and one place we need to be especially aware of sexual assault is behind bars.

Every year, more than 100,000 men, women and children are victimized while behind bars, frequently by corrections officials whose very job it is to keep them safe. The U.S. attorney general is currently reviewing national standards aimed at preventing and addressing this type of abuse. Until May 10, these measures are open for public comments.

If fully implemented, the national standards will spare countless Americans the horror of sexual abuse. But the standards are under threat. The reason: Prison officials claim that it will be too expensive to implement them — too expensive to prevent staff from raping detainees.

Incarcerated rape survivors tend to suffer in silence and are forced to remain in regular contact with their assailants. And prisoners have no access to rape crisis counseling in the aftermath of an attack.

National crisis

In 2003, Congress recognized that the victimization of inmates constitutes a national crisis and so it unanimously passed the U.S. Prison Rape Elimination Act.

The national standards currently under review by Attorney General Eric Holder were developed by a bipartisan federal commission through extensive consultation with corrections officials, criminal justice experts, advocates and prisoner rape survivors. They are basic, common-sense measures, highlighting the need to train staff, identify likely rape victims and likely predators and ensure that prisons are subjected to independent audits.

By law, Holder has until June to review the standards and codify them as federal regulations, making them binding on detention facilities nationwide.

Sadly, it now looks like Holder will not meet his deadline. The delay is due, in large part, to a problematic cost projection study commissioned by the Justice Department in response to pressure from corrections leaders.

Lovisa Stannow is the executive director of Just Detention International, an international human rights organization that seeks to end sexual abuse in prisons. She wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary.