The responsive planning standards require agencies to take steps to ensure that all incidents of sexual abuse are investigated and that victims of sexual abuse have access to forensic medical exams and rape crisis advocates. Agencies that are unable to provide access to rape crisis advocates must document their efforts to secure advocacy services and provide access instead to either a qualified staff member from a community-based organization or a qualified agency staff member.
STANDARDS. Click on the following links to access the responsive planning standards for Adult Prisons and Jails, Community Confinement Facilities, Juvenile Facilities, and Lockups.
Responsive Planning - Issues - Evidence protocol and forensic medical examinations
Evidence protocol and forensic medical examinations
Standard 115.21/115.121/115.221/115.321 broadly requires agencies to follow a uniform evidence protocol adapted from the DOJ’s Office on Violence Against Women publication, “A National Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations, Adults/Adolescents – Second Edition,” or another similarly comprehensive and authoritative protocol developed after 2011. Within that broad mandate, the standard contains two of the PREA standards’ specific requirements for ensuring a victim-centered response to an incident of sexual abuse at a correctional facility:
- Victim access to forensic medical exams, without financial cost, where evidentiarily or medically appropriate; and
- Victim access to rape crisis advocates.
Whether conducted onsite or at a medical facility, the standard instructs correctional facilities to use a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) or Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner (SAFE) to perform exams where possible. Facilities in areas where no SANE or SAFE is available must document efforts to find SANEs or SAFEs and then provide other qualified medical professionals for the exams. The standard further requires facilities to use a developmentally appropriate protocol for youth. Since no national protocol for pediatric sexual assault exists, contact your local sexual assault or domestic violence coalitions to inquire about your state’s protocol. To find state-level coalitions, visit this website.
Recognizing the unique role of rape crisis center advocates in providing support, crisis intervention, information, and referrals to victims throughout the forensic medical exam process and ensuing investigation(s), Standard 115.21/115.221/115.321 requires facilities to attempt to secure advocacy services from rape crisis centers for victims of sexual abuse in confinement. For lockups, the requirement is slightly different. Standard 115.121 states that if a detainee is sent to an outside hospital for a forensic medical exam and that hospital offers victim advocacy services, the detainee must be permitted to use those services to the extent available, consistent with security needs.
Prisons, jails, community confinement facilities, and juvenile facilities in rural or other areas without rape crisis centers are required to document their efforts to locate advocacy services and are given the option of substituting a qualified staff member from a community-based organization or a qualified agency staff member for a rape crisis advocate. If a facility uses a qualified staff member from a community-based social services organization or agency staff, it must screen that person for appropriateness and ensure that he or she receives education concerning sexual abuse issues and forensic exams.
Responsive Planning - Resources - General
General
- Responding to Sexual Abuse of Inmates in Custody: Addressing the Needs of Men, Women, and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals Webinar, The Project on Addressing Prison Rape in collaboration with the National PREA Resource Center (2013).
- It Takes a Team: Building a Coordinated Response to Sexual Abuse in Prison Webinar, Just Detention International (2012).
- Understanding the Issue: An Overview of Sexual Abuse in Prison Webinar, Just Detention International (2012).
- It Starts With You: Victim Advocates and the New Federal Standards to Stop Prisoner Rape Webinar, Just Detention International in collaboration with the National PREA Resource Center (2012).
- List of State Sexual Assault Coalitions available on the website of DOJ’s Office on Violence Against Women (2012).
- Interactive Map of Resources for Survivors on Just Detention International’s website.
- Sexual Abuse in Correctional Settings: What Rape Crisis Counselors Need to Know, The Project on Addressing Prison Rape (2011).
- National Training Standards for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examiners, US Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women (2006).
- Meeting the Needs of Prison Rape Victims: A Technical Assistance Guide for Sexual Assault Counselors and Advocates, Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (2006).
- Listing of SANE Programs available on the International Association of Forensic Nurses’ website (2013).
- A National Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations, Adults/Adolescents, US Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women, Second Edition (2013).
- Recommendations for Administrators of Prisons, Jails, and Community Confinement Facilities for Adapting the U.S. Department of Justice's A National Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations, Adults/Adolescents, U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women (2013).
Responsive Planning - Resources - Adult Prisons and Jails
Adult Prisons and Jails
- First Step: PREA and Victim Services in Jails, Part I Webinar, Just Detention International in collaboration with the National PREA Resource Center (2013).
- Making Your Plan: PREA and Victim Services in Jails, Part II Webinar, Just Detention International in collaboration with the National PREA Resource Center (2013).
- Implementing the Prison Rape Elimination Act: A Toolkit for Jails, Center for Innovative Public Policies and The Moss Group in collaboration with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (2012).
- The PREA Toolkit for Jails and Juvenile Facilities Webinar, The Moss Group and the Center for Innovative Public Policies in collaboration with the National PREA Resource Center (2012).
- The Big Picture: Victim Services in Prison, Part I Webinar, Just Detention International in collaboration with the National PREA Resource Center (2012).
- PREA in Action: Arlington County Jail Webinar, Vera Institute of Justice in collaboration with the National PREA Resource Center (2012).
- Getting to Work: PREA and Victim Services in Prisons, Part II Webinar, Just Detention International in collaboration with the National PREA Resource Center (2012).
Responsive Planning - Resources - Community Confinement Facilities
Community Confinement Facilities
- When the Offender is a Victim: Community Corrections’ Response to Prison Rape Webinar, American Probation and Parole Association (2013).
- Preventing and Responding to Corrections-Based Sexual Abuse: A Guide for Community Corrections Professionals, Carrie E. Abner, Jane Browning, and John Clark (2009).
Responsive Planning - Resources - Juvenile Facilities
Juvenile Facilities
- Implementing the Prison Rape Elimination Act: A Toolkit for Juvenile Agencies and Facilities, Center for Innovative Public Policies and The Moss Group in collaboration with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (2012).
- The PREA Toolkit for Jails and Juvenile Facilities Webinar, The Moss Group and the Center for Innovative Public Policies in collaboration with the National PREA Resource Center (2012).
- Addressing Sexual Violence Against Youth in Custody: Youth Workers’ Handbook on Identifying and Addressing Sexual Violence in Juvenile Justice Settings, The Project on Addressing Prison Rape (2013).
Responsive Planning - Resources - Lockups
Lockups
- Enhancing Law Enforcement Response to Victims, Office of Victims of Crime and International Association of Chiefs of Police.