Training & Technical Assistance

The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), which was signed into law by President George W. Bush on September 4, 2003, was created to eliminate sexual abuse in confinement.  To learn more about the law and preparing for implementation, visit the PREA Essentials page.

In order to achieve its mission to eliminate sexual abuse in confinement facilities nationwide, the PREA Resource Center (PRC) has designed a four-pronged strategy for the development and delivery of training and technical assistance (TTA).

1. Targeted TTA– The announcements and schedules for upcoming targeted TTA events will be posted on this website so that interested participants can register in advance. All webinars will be archived and accessible on this site. The PRC’s targeted TTA strategy is intended to make resources available to the widest possible audiences nationwide. 

2. Request for Assistance (Field-initiated TTA) – In order to respond to the individual needs of agencies and facilities nationwide, the PRC has created an option for agencies to submit requests for TTA that meets their specific requirements. A request for TTA may be submitted by completing the form accessed by a link on this site. Once the TTA Request Form is received, the PRC will forward an acknowledgement and the PRC’s TTA coordinator will contact the requesting individual or agency to process and respond to the request.

3. Demonstration Sites – In 2011, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded grants to 18 correctional agencies to implement their plans for creating “Zero Tolerance” cultures for sexual abuse, including comprehensive approaches to prevention, detection, and responses to incidence of sexual abuse, and in 2012 BJA will award additional grants to local jurisdictions to develop similar “Zero Tolerance” programs. In collaboration with BJA, the PRC has assigned coaches to each site to provide guidance in identifying and obtaining TTA that will be most effective in achieving their goals. In addition, the PRC coaches will be monitoring site activities in order to identify effective practices for eliminating sexual abuse that may have applicability to other agencies across the country. Information on effective practices will be posted on the PRC’s website library. 

4. PREA in Action – The PRC has undertaken an initiative to identify ongoing efforts to eliminate sexual abuse by facilities and agencies across the country. These efforts will be documented over the next two years in a series called “PREA in Action.” These case studies will be presented as webinars and as publications on this website. 

Taken together, these four strategies are designed to have a nationwide impact on eliminating sexual abuse in all types of confinement facilities including adult prisons and jails, lockups, as well as juvenile, community, and tribal facilities.

Note: The National PREA Resource Center (PRC) and collaborating partners produce training, curriculum and tools that seek to support agency compliance. However, the PREA standards do not require usage of any specific vendor or curriculum, including those produced by the PRC. Agencies evaluating training products should complete an independent evaluation of whether or not the training product will meet training requirements as specified by the PREA standards.