The PREA Resource Center is pleased to announce that the Audit Instrument for the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) PREA Standards for Prisons and Jails has been released, pending final revision by the US Department of Justice. You can find the complete instrument here.
These documents comprise the instrument that auditors will use to audit the U.S. Department of Justice's PREA Standards for Prisons and Jails. The instrument includes:
A) Process Map – describes the process from pre- through post-audit.
B) Checklist of Documentation – this is a list of all documentation that will be requested of the facility as part of an audit and will be sent by the auditor to the facility along with the Pre-Audit Questionnaire in preparation for the audit.
C) Pre-Audit Questionnaire – this document will be sent by the auditor to the facility to be audited prior to the audit. It will be completed by the facility’s PREA Compliance Manager, or similar person. It is designed as an online tool so that agencies with the technological capacity will be able to fill the questionnaire out on a secure site and upload documents for review in advance of the audit. [Before any facility audits take place in a given jurisdiction, the agency level PREA Coordinator should fill out a version of this to provide any agency-level information and any relevant agency-wide policies so that all facility auditors can reference the agency-level material without having to duplicate that work.]
D) Auditor Compliance Tool – this is the tool the auditor will use to determine compliance with the standards. Much of the information in the tool will auto-fill from the Pre-Audit Questionnaire, and the auditor will upload further documentation to an online version of this when possible.
E) Instructions for PREA Audit Tour – this is a guide for auditors with instructions for the facility tour they will conduct as part of each audit.
F) Interview Protocols – there are six different interview protocols. These protocols will be used by auditors to interview staff and inmates as part of the audit. Answers from the interviews will be part of the auditor’s compliance assessment. Auditors are not limited to these questions, but the questions in the protocol provide a minimum foundation for the auditor’s inquiry.
G) Auditor Report – this is a template of the report the auditor will provide to the facility and that will be published. Much of the information in the Report auto-fills from the Auditor Compliance Tool.
In addition, the PRC has released a handbook for facilities that includes the full set of corresponding compliance measures, which accompanies the audit instrument.
The PREA Resource Center will be training a group of auditors in June 2013, who will be certified by the Department of Justice and prepared to start auditing facilities by the beginning of the first audit cycle: August 20, 2013. Participation in this training is by invitation only; future trainings will be open to all qualified individuals via an application process. Details about the application process and required qualifications will be posted on the PRC website when available.
The PRC hosted a webinar on Thursday, June 13, 2013 to explain the tool and the auditing process. Click here to view it.
The PRC is working with the DOJ to finalize the audit instrument for the PREA Standards for Juvenile Facilities, which will be available sometime in early summer 2013. The audit instruments for PREA Standards for Community Confinement Facilities and Lockups will be in development this summer and available in the fall of 2013.