The Online Audit System (OAS) allows users to complete facility or agency audits. The agency audit is an audit of certain PREA Standards and provisions that either impose a burden solely on the confinement agency or for which the responsibility may be shared by the agency and its operated facilities. Any agency with multiple facilities can elect to conduct an agency audit. Many agencies operate more than one type of facility (e.g., prisons and community confinement facilities). Since the standards vary by the type of facility, agency audits are designed to be facility-type specific. An agency may elect to have agency-level audits for all, one, or none of the facility types it operates. The results of an agency audit will be valid only for one year following the completion of the agency audit final report. For a given facility audit to include the results of an agency audit, the facility audit must have begun, but does not need to be completed, in the calendar year following the agency audit. If the agency audit becomes out of date, those standards that are part of the agency audit will automatically become the responsibility of each facility auditor.
Facility audits (facility-type specific) within that agency will not include a re-audit of those standards and provisions that cover operations conducted solely by the agency or central office. However, certain standards or provisions that are part of the agency audit may be re-audited at the facility level, if the facility has some responsibility separate from the agency's responsibility for those standards or provisions. For example, if an agency has a collective bargaining agreement governed by Standard 115.66, but facilities within that agency have their own collective bargaining agreements with their staff, those facility agreements will have to be audited during the facility audit. If there are no separate facility agreements (i.e., the facility has no shared responsibility for the collective bargaining agreements), as determined by the facility auditor, then that standard need not be audited at the facility level.
Use of the agency audit feature in the OAS also allows agencies to share extensive information prior to facility audits, without having to send that information separately to each facility. Once an agency audit is completed in the OAS, agency-level information is available to each associated facility audit. When facility-based audit preparation begins, the facility PREA Coordinator or PREA Compliance Manager can pull relevant agency policies and information into the Pre-Audit Questionnaire for their facility audit. This reduces the burden on the facility and facility-level auditors by ensuring that agency level information is consistent across all facility audits that benefit from the agency audit.
Agency audit standards
The agency audit is an audit of a limited number of PREA Standards that regulate operations and behaviors that take place solely at the agency or central office level, or that are a shared responsibility between the agency and its operated facilities. These standards are:
- 115.11(b) PREA Coordinator
- 115.12 Contracting with other entities for the confinement of inmates, detainees, and residents
- 115.17 Hiring and promotion decisions
- 115.18(a) Upgrades to facilities
- 115.42(c)/(d) Placement of residents
- 115.66 Preservation of ability to protect inmates, detainees, and residents from contact with abusers
- 115.87 Data collection
- 115.88 Data review for corrective action
- 115.89 Data storage, publication, destruction
- 115.401(a) and (b) Frequency and scope of audits
- 115.403(f) Audit content and findings
To initiate an agency audit, please submit an Audit Initiation Form.
Please note: Agency audits for private agencies must be approved on a case-by-case basis by PMO. For questions regarding agency audits of private agencies please reach out to [email protected].