Prison Rape Elimination Act

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Prison Rape Elimination Act

• Why is this important to us?

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Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities
Reported by Youth, 2008-09

• Bureau of Justice Statistics
• Report dated January 2010

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Some Statistics

• 12 of youth reported experiencing one or more
  incidents of victimization by another youth or
  facility staff.
• 2.6 reported the incident involving another
  youth.
• 10.3 reported an incident involving facility
  staff.

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Statistics

• 95 of all youth reporting staff sexual
  misconduct said they had been victimized by a
  female staff.
• In 2008, 42 of staff in state juvenile
  facilities were female.

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Rates of Sexual Victimization

• 10.8 of males and 4.7 females reported sexual
  activity with facility staff.
• 9.1 of females and 2 of males reported unwanted
  sexual activity with another youth.

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Sexual Orientation

• Youth with a sexual orientation other than
  heterosexual reported significantly higher rates
  of sexual victimization by another youth (12.5)
  compared to heterosexual youth (1.3)

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Prior Sexual Assault

• Youth who had experienced any prior sexual
  assault were more than twice as likely to report
  sexual victimization in the current facility
  (24.1), compared with those with no sexual
  assault history (10.1)

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Elements of a Safe and Secure Environment Institut
ional Culture

Knowing Kids as Individuals
Teamwork
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Professional Staff
Daily Program
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Women Guilty of Sex With Minor Telegram and
Gazette 11/08
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11/08 Telegram and Gazette

• A woman who was a caseworker for the ------
  pleaded guilty yesterday to having sex with a boy
  client who lives in Leominster. ------, 24,
  admitted in Court to charge of inducing a chaste
  minor into sexual intercourse.

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• She was placed on probation for two years,
  ordered to have no contact with the victim, no
  unsupervised contact with unrelated minors and no
  employment that involved minors under the age of
  16.
• At her arraignment on March 28, -----faced a
  charge of statutory rape. The charge was reduced
  to the charge she pleaded to.
• She confirmed 15 incidents of sexual intercourse
  with the boy and 5 incidents of oral sex.

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Inmate wins 1.3 million in Denver Rape Case
6/11/09

• A female inmate sexually assaulted by a Colorado
  DOC sergeant was awarded 1.3 million by a
  federal judge who said he hoped the damages would
  be a deterrent to other correctional officers.

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Consent?
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State Criminal Laws Prohibiting Sexual Misconduct
with Offenders in 1990
National Institute of Corrections
M
Law Enacted 1983
Law Enacted 1986
Law Enacted 1985
M
Law Enacted 1988
Law Enacted 1987
Law Enacted 1958
Law Enacted 1988
Law Enacted 1983, Amended in 1995- removing
necessary language.
Law Enacted 1981
WASHINGTON, DC
Law Enacted 1986
Law Enacted 1974
Law Enacted 1983
Law Enacted 1983
Law Enacted 1987
Law Enacted 1978
Law Enacted 1983
Law Enacted 1986
defined as a misdemeanor. defined as a
felony. defined as a felony or mis-
demeanor No laws criminalizing
Sexual Misconduct
Law Enacted 1989
Source 1997, Fifty State Survey of Criminal Laws
Prohibiting Sexual Abuse of Prisoners,
Brenda V. Smith, National Womens Law Center.
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State Criminal Laws Prohibiting Sexual Abuse of
Juveniles Under Correctional Supervision
National Institute of Corrections/American
University, Washington College of Law
VT
Vt.
N.H.
Wash.
Montana
Me.
N.D.
Minn.
Mass.
Oregon
Wis.
RI
S. D.
Idaho
N.Y.
Mich.
RI
Ct.
Iowa
Pa.
Wyoming
N.J.
Neb.
Nevada
Ohio
Ill.
D.C.
Utah
WV
In.
Colorado
Va.
Del.
Kansas
Ky.
Mo.
California
Md.
N.C.
Tenn.
Ark.
Arizona
Okla.
N. M.
S.C.
Al.
Ms.
Ga.
Texas
La.
Florida
Hawaii
Alaska
Juvenile Justice Agencies not covered by
laws Juvenile Justice agencies
covered by laws
Source September 2008. Brenda V. Smith, The
American University, Washington College of Law
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Sexual Misconduct

• Jeopardizes safety
• Creates risk of legal action
• Harms relationships
• Creates negative public image
• Diminishes trust and morale
• Weakens respect for and authority of staff

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Objectives

• Questions answered from PREA roll-out
• Prevention/Detection and Intervention
• Red Flags
• Boundary Issues
• Review Your Responsibilities

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PRISON RAPE ELIMINATION ACT

• Signed into Federal Law 09-04-03
• Incorporates a zero-tolerance standard for
  incidents of sexual assault and rape and makes
  prevention a top priority.

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Boundary Violations

• Together with your table group list behaviors
  that you think may be boundary violations.
• Record them and pick a representative to report
  back

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Boundary Violations

• Any behavior that does not maintain proper and
  respectful verbal and physical boundaries
• Includes doing favors you would not want others
  to know about
• Disclosing inappropriately personal information
• Face book/Social Networks????
• Unreasonable invasion of privacy

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Boundary Violations

• Voyeurism
• Inappropriate discussion
• Correspondence
• Exerting pressure or coercion to engage in
  inappropriate behavior

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Dress Code
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(No Transcript)
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DYS Policy

• G.L.c.119, 51A

• DYS requires the mandatory reporting and
  investigation of ANY allegation of child abuse or
  neglect to the Department of Social Services.

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Red Flags/Communications
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Language

• Directors, Assistant Directors and Supervisors
  should be ensuring that staff are not using
  inappropriate language.
• Sexual Harassment Definition
• demeaning references to gender or derogatory
  comments about body or clothing
• repeated profane or obscene language or gestures

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Marion County Prosecutors Office April 24, 2006

• In April 2006, charges were filed against 10
  employees of the Marion County Detention Center
  in Indianapolis following a five month
  investigation that uncovered, a pervasive
  pattern of detention officials molesting young
  female detainees.
• 8 youth Managers 52 counts
• Superintendent concealing evidence

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Specific Prevention Strategies

• Role Model
• A sexualized environment sets up a potentially
  permissive atmosphere
• Environment hues behavior
• Minimize 11

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• Not allowed on most units!
• Ring Tones

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Programming Four Groups

• What type of movies should we be showing kids?
• What TV shows are allowed?
• Video Games?
• Publications?

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Knowing the kids!
Notice Behavior Changes

• withdrawing/isolating themselves
• anxiety, fear or paranoia
• nightmares
• acting out in an effort to be separated or to
  facilitate a transfer
• Refusal to shower or eat
• Increased medical complaints and attention seeking

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Awareness Aggressor Activity

• What are the kids saying? Know the climate.

• grouping of probable aggressors
• friendly overtures made toward potential victims
  
• subtle intimidation
• taunting new kids
• protective pairing
• Kids who think they are in charge

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Staff Measures

• Is there a Zero tolerance standard for
  inappropriate behavior?
• brochures
• Can kids talk to staff?
• Are you treating any suggestion or allegation of
  sexual assault seriously?
• Are program rules consistent?

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Safeguards

• Showers single showers

NO
YES
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Meetings

• Are staff meeting regularly to discuss red flag,
  boundary issues?
• How do you do this?
• Supervisions

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Vicarious Liability

• When an agency, institution, its staff in total
  or in part, has knowledge that an illegal/harmful
  activity/procedure exists in an institutional
  setting (and they make no visible effort to
  resolve the issue), they can be held explicitly
  liable from a financial, criminal (or both)
  perspective!

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• After release from the Ventura California Youth
  Authority in 2004, a 20 year old woman reported
  that she had been sexually assaulted by
  corrections staff at the facility in 2003-2004.
• The womans father stated that six male
  corrections officers had engaged in sexual acts
  with six female wards, one of whom was his
  daughter.

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Efforts

• the facilitys efforts to prevent these kind of
  abuses
• such as requiring that a corrections officer
  transporting wards be accompanied by another
  officer, were ineffective
• The victims father stated that, the problem
  with my daughter took place in the midst of more
  than one officer and when you have two bad guys
  those changes dont matter.

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Daniel Macallair, Executive Director of Facility

• There are indeed major structural problems
  within the youth authority. Sexual misconduct by
  corrections officers is nothing new. This has
  been going on for as long and as far back as we
  can go.
• If you snitch on a staff , you will face
  retaliation.

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MA DYS Compliance Measures
Staff Sexual Misconduct 1.5.7(a) Client Sexual
Misconduct 1.5.6(a)
Establishing the following agency procedures
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CODE OF CONDUCT

• WE RESPECT EACH OTHERS SAFETY

No Verbally or Physically Assaultive Behavior
WE MAINTAIN SELF CONTROL
No Self-Abusive Behavior
WE ACCEPT THE IMPORTANCE OF BOUNDARIES
No Relationships Beyond Friendship
WE RESPECT OUR SURROUNDINGS
No Damage to the Building or Property
WE APPRECIATE EACH OTHERS INDIVIDUALITY AND
EXPECT A CRIME-FREE ENVIRONMENT
No Gang Activity
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What is DYS policy on this issue?

• Prevention and Elimination of sexual
  misconduct/assault within DYS
• Sexual contact between staff and clients, and
  between clients, is always forbidden and deemed
  non-consensual

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Zero Tolerance

• SEXUAL MISCONDUCT
• Any sexual contact between staff and clients
• Any sexual contact between clients

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Red FlagsAre We Paying Attention to Staff??

• Over-identifying with Youth
• Horseplay
• Staff granting special requests or favors
• Staff in the facility during off hours
• Staff sharing food or snacks with youth
• Conversations between staff and youth that are
  sexualized in nature
• Sitting on laps

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Change in Dress or Appearance

• Flattered by attention of kids

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Red Flags

• Inappropriate dress for the work site
• Staff spending time with youth in isolated
  situations
• Staff calling youth out of their room late at
  night
• Bringing things in for youth or for one
  particular youth
• Employee in personal crisis

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Red Flags

• Getting into conflicts with co-workers over a
  particular youth
• Manipulating chores in favor of a particular
  youth
• Consistent overtime
• Coming to work early or staying late
• Covering Windows

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March 25, 2006

• A 12 year old boy in a holding room at a Compton,
  California courthouse was raped by two older male
  juveniles while two others held him down.
  Probation Officers who were supposed to be
  monitoring the holding room appear to have
  deliberately obstructed their view through a
  glass window in order to prevent the boys from
  seeing them.
• Noam N. Levey Los Angeles Times

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E. CLIENT REPORTING

• To Trusted Staff
• Grievance Form
• Drop Boxes in every program
• No ridicule, retaliation
• Taken seriously, confidentially

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Awareness
Ways Staff Learn of a Sexual Assault/Misconduct

• How might you hear about sexual misconduct or
  assault?

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Staff Reporting Any Sexual Misconduct

• (1) immediately report to a supervisor
• (2) incident report
• (3) Serious Incident report
• (4) 51A report
• (5) confidential report to the General
• Counsels office
• (6) Failure will result in discipline.

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Sexual Assault

• Immediate Needs of Youth/First Aid
• Encourage youth not to wash or change clothes
• Secure area
• Alert State Police
• Alert General Counsels Office

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L. Current Clients Family

• Sexual contact is strictly prohibited
• Subject to discipline

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Visits

• You are supervising visits and a woman arrives to
  visit her son. You notice that she is very
  attractive. She asks you if you would be
  interested in having dinner with her.
• What would you do?

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M. Former Clients and Family

• Per policy which is correct?
• Sexual contact is strictly prohibited for
  three years after discharge from DYS
• Sexual contact is strictly prohibited for three
  months after discharge from DYS
• There are no rules prohibiting sexual contact
  with youth once they are discharged from DYS

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DYS Compliance Measures

• Shift Administrators will make any special
  housing provisions
• How can you be proactive in the prevention ?
• Roommate and bedroom assignments?
• What factors should you consider?

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California Youth Authority

• To escape repeated victimization, some youth
  deliberately assaulted other youth or staff to be
  placed in single rooms in temporary detention
  units or other restricted housing units.
• Why are kids asking for room changes?
• Question them.

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G. ROOMMATE AND BEDROOMASSIGNMENTS

• Factors chronological age
• maturity
• functioning level
• gang affiliation
• level of sophistication
• size strength
• disabilities infirmities
• behavioral history
• offenses

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Known Sex Offenders

• Where should you put them?

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H. SEPARATION OF CLIENTS

• if evidence of sexual misconduct,
• shall separate clients
• if evidence of boundary violations,
• consider whether to separate

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Why is this important?

• No Escape Prison Rape in America
• Directed By Gabriel London

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Now is the Time!