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NCCD Now: Ending Prison Rape

June 3, 2013 | Tara Graham, Senior Program Specialist, NCCD

prison-cells

Tara Graham joined NCCD as a senior program specialist to support NCCD’s work on the National PREA Resource Center. Tara brings to NCCD more than 10 years of experience in the areas of sexual violence and HIV/AIDS work. Most recently, she served as a senior program associate for the Vera Institute of Justice, where she worked on a myriad of projects focused on the prevention, detection, and elimination of sexual violence in confinement.

Tara Graham joined NCCD as a senior program specialist to support NCCD’s work on the National PREA Resource Center. Tara brings to NCCD more than 10 years of experience in the areas of sexual violence and HIV/AIDS work. Most recently, she served as a senior program associate for the Vera Institute of Justice, where she worked on a myriad of projects focused on the prevention, detection, and elimination of sexual violence in confinement.

This month’s NCCD Now focuses on the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) and the efforts made by the National PREA Resource Center (PRC) to assist correctional agencies across the country to implement the national PREA standards. The PRC’s mission is to assist state, local, and tribal confinement facilities nationwide in their efforts to eliminate sexual abuse by increasing their capacity for preventing, detecting, and responding to incidents of sexual abuse including services for victims and their families. The PRC is administered by NCCD as part of a cooperative agreement with the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and in cooperation with several partner organizations.

Since the release of the final standards in May 2012, the PRC has had more than 77,000 website views, broadcast more than 33 webinars, hosted 17 regional trainings, and responded to more than 260 requests for assistance and hundreds, if not thousands, of questions. The summer of 2013 continues this engagement with the field. In June the PRC will conduct four regional trainings, four webinars, and three national presentations. Topics of these events will include victim services, inmate education, investigations, gender-responsive strategies for incarcerated youth, introduction to the audit instrument, and youthful inmates in confinement. 

Bloggers for this month’s feature include guests and PRC staff. PRC staff bloggers will reflect on the impact of PREA on corrections; the importance of improving the culture of reporting; and how a personal connection has influenced their work with the PRC. Guest bloggers will discuss PREA as a movement not unlike the civil rights or women’s movement; the impact of peer education; alternative methods for educating youth with graphic novels; and the impact of PREA related to violence against women. 

I vividly recall my earliest visits on behalf of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC) to collect information to inform the development of the NPREC’s recommended standards. I found myself welcomed into a state penitentiary—not because of our shared desire to protect inmates from sexual abuse, but because I came under the auspices of the NPREC. It was clear during this visit, and several others, that correctional facilities preferred to deny the possibility of sexual abuse within their walls and were not accepting of the PREA legislation; they simply did not want to be found at fault.

It is amazing the difference seven years make—or the nearly 10 years since the passing of the Prison Rape Elimination Act legislation. I hear time and time again that PREA is needed; it is simply good corrections—a complete cultural mind shift around this issue over the years. Is our work complete? Not by a long shot.

The field continues to need assistance and in 2010, BJA responded to this need by funding the National PREA Resource Center. Under the cooperative agreement between BJA and NCCD, the PRC functions as an online resource that includes an extensive library; information about the standards including frequently asked questions; archived webinars; and information about training and technical assistance opportunities.

The PRC receives frequent questions regarding whether or not a particular facility has to comply with the standards. Or we hear from individuals who say they are committed to making change, but struggle to get their administration to support their efforts. Even those jurisdictions that have been supportive of PREA from the beginning face challenges related to cross-gender supervision or forging relationships with community victim advocacy organizations due to funding challenges and misperceptions.

These challenges keep the PRC and its partners busy, working to ensure that the resources they provide are not only consistent with the needs of the field, but also range in complexity from basic PREA implementation to more sophisticated technical assistance offerings.

When I began working on PREA, a colleague said this work would define our careers. While I never would have guessed that my desire for public policy experience would lead to the focus of my professional career, I am pleased to work on an issue that is taken seriously. I am also pleased to be part of the PRC which, along with its partners, is helping agencies attain those goals.

I hope you enjoy this month’s NCCD Now feature and the posts detailing the tremendous effort so many continue to make to ensure that sexual abuse and harassment are not part of someone’s stay in confinement.

Visit the PRC’s website at www.prearesourcecenter.org to explore resources and learn more. Click here to read a guest blog by John A. Kaneb, the former Vice Chair of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, on his reflections on PREA 10 years after its legislative passage. To read more about culture change towards “zero tolerance” of sexual violence within facilities, click here for a guest blog by Boa Smith, a survivor of sexual abuse during her incarceration. For a blog by NCCD’s Sarah True on her path to working with the PRC, click here.