- My name's John Barkley. I'm the Prison Rape Elimination Act Coordinator for the South Carolina Department of Corrections. South Carolina, with all of our prisons, are very much committed to the inmates being safe. And part of that safety is no inmates should be subject to sexual abuse or sexual harassment. And we take that very seriously, not just with words and a policy, but with the actions that we do. All allegations are investigated, not just the ones that we believe are credible, but they're all open, investigated, and documented as the Standards call for. We've designated as the PREA Compliance Manager is one of the associate wardens. So it does two things. It shows the inmates the importance of it because it's a person right underneath the warden, and it shows the staff the importance of it. Every inmate, male and female, coming into South Carolina Department of Corrections hears from inmates that have been chosen and trained, called peer educators, to tell these inmates that we are serious about information that we receive, the zero tolerance as we call it. The impact from it coming from an inmate is huge. Inmates here something for me or any other staff, they know I'm on the payroll. I'm getting paid to do this. We have selected inmates and continue to select inmates that truly care about their fellow human beings. And that's why they're doing it. And that comes through. The challenges with setting up any kind of relationship with sexual assault centers is just the unknown. So many of the people in the sexual assault centers have never been to a prison. So one of the things that we have done and continue to do is inviting those sexual assault centers to the table to visit the prison, to be there to meet the staff, to see what's going on so they'll have an idea when the inmates call, they'll have an understanding of where the inmates are calling from. The Prison Rape Elimination Act is just good corrections practice. If an inmate, particularly a male, will come to you and talk about sexual assault or sexual harassment, there's a good chance they'll come and talk to you about some other things that might be a problem inside your prison or jail. I think it's important that just as the four things that Prison Rape Elimination talks about, prevent, detect, respond, and monitor, we want to prevent. That's the ultimate goal.