Can the standard 115.11/311 requirement that an agency with more than one facility designate a PREA Compliance Manager for each facility be met by the designation of regional PREA Compliance Managers who have responsibility for more than one facility, or must each facility designate its own individual PREA Compliance Manager who has no corresponding responsibilities at another facility?
Each facility must designate its own PREA Compliance Manager “with sufficient time and authority to coordinate the facility’s efforts to comply with the PREA standards.” See standard 115.11(c)/311(c). Both the PREA standards and the explanatory text in the Notice of Final Rule (NFR) make clear that the PREA Compliance Manager should be a facility-based individual. For example, the NFR provides that “the final standard requires each facility in a multi-facility agency to have its own PREA compliance manager.” See 77 Fed. Reg. 37106, 37117 (emphasis added).
The Department is aware of some agencies that have created “regional” compliance managers for the purpose of overseeing and/or implementing the PREA standards for multiple facilities. These regional managers do not satisfy the requirement that each facility have its own PREA Compliance Manager. However, it does not violate the standards for an agency to create regional managers with responsibility for PREA implementation, so long as each agency also has an appropriate PREA Coordinator, and each facility has its own PREA Compliance Manager. Indeed, in many large agencies, the creation of a regional manager with PREA implementation responsibilities may assist agencies in the efficient implementation of the standards agency wide.