Prison Rape Elimination Act
A few
weeks ago, I found myself filled with remorse over a particular call for advocacy that came in at the rape
crisis center where I work. As a
prevention education specialist, my main job is to instruct students on ways to
stay safe in relationship to other people.
However, all employees are trained to provide on-call crisis services on
a rotation schedule, and it was my week.
Prison
rape was an issue that I had never had an opportunity to address before in my
professional life. Bowled over by the
depths of despair, humiliation, and physical damage that I witnessed, I
realized that this was an issue I could no longer ignore.
I thought
of the girls and boys in my elementary school programs. As their faces spun in my mind, I realized
that according to statistics, it is likely that some of these students will end
up in prison. Scientific studies show
that abused children, bullied children, as well as kids who are bullies – all
have a much higher risk of ending up on the wrong side of the law as adults. According to the director of the Brenna Center
for Justice at the NYU School of Law, United States correctional systems “have
become a means to treat a host of mental and physical diseases as well as drug
abuse.” Six times the rate of Canada,
between six – nine times the rate of western European countries, and two – ten
times the rate of northern European countries, the United States has the most elevated
prison population in the world.
Still
believing that prevention is the key, I decided to learn all I can about the
prison system and find people who know the proper channels to go through in
order to make a difference now.
I took my
questions to our program director, Heather O. who is involved in a reform
movement known as Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA for those in the
know. PREA is a federal law that prohibits
sexual misconduct in correctional settings.
Passed in 2003, it is the first law enacted that entails both the study
of and response to sexual misconduct in prisons.
I learned
that PREA was responsible for pairing our local prisons with our rape crisis
center. This act also expedites the prisoner contact with
a sexual assault crisis worker through use of toll-free telephone calls. I decided to join the PREA committee in our
agency. Knowing the positive difference
that a caring advocate can make for someone who has suffered sexual violence, this
committee seeks to go to the next step and offer this emotional support to
victims in prisons with a much deeper understanding of the issues involved.
I
realized, too, after talking with Heather O., that to change the system that allows
and shrugs off acts of sexual violence within it, I had work to do within my
own heart and mind to make a strong stand with the people whom I love, live
with, and work. From now on, when I hear
someone make a joke about prison rape, I will let that person know that prison
rape is not something to joke about or to dismiss as a criminal’s just
deserts. I will have conversations with
my students, with my family, coworkers, and friends that promote respect for
the sovereignty of the human body. I
will explore with them, the ways in which everybody – every citizen– is hurt by the rape that goes on in prisons. I will say that it should be our aim to find
more uplifting ways to hold people liable for their wrongdoing, while offering
a chance for true correction. I will say that only when we take a stand
against rape everywhere, all the more so in prisons, can we hope to eliminate
all forms of sexual violence.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/04/30/does-the-united-states-really-have-five-percent-of-worlds-population-and-one-quarter-of-the-worlds-prisoners/Written by Eckie F., Education Specialist
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