States may find themselves losing money if they continue to let sexual assault in prison be swept under the rug, reports AP.
New standards are being proposed by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission to Attorney General Eric Holder on revising the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996, an act that has been problematic for survivors for a number of reasons, one being that prisoners are required to prove "physical injury" in order to file claims against prisons. (This allows courts to say that sexual assault by itself doesn't count as an injury.)
Holder has a year to write national standards. If states don't adopt them, they can lose 5% of federal prison grant money.
While folks are confident that states will sign on, some are worried that certain county prisons won't be able to afford to implement some programs that require extra funding, like hiring additional staff specialized in mental health treatment for rape survivors. But other steps to prevent sexual assault, like closer screening of inmates and staff and zero tolerance policies, can and should be taken - particularly when sexual assault is so often committed by prison guards.
Check out Just Detention, a organization that advocates for the rights of prisoners to be free from sexual assault, for more information on rape in prison.
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5% of federal grant money? I wonder how much that amounts to and how much it would cost any given prison to do something about rape within its walls. I'm sure wardens across the country are doing that math right now. If it'll cost more than 5% I suspect their research will stop there and they'll just take the 5% hit and go merrily on their way.
The consequence of this law is likely to be a temporary jump in prison rape reporting, with little to no change in the actual frequency, followed by a steady decline. Suddenly, prison officials will have an incentive to get the number as high as possible in the first year (or as high as they can without looking completely incompetent), and then go back to ignoring the problem so they can claim success.
It might be reapeadeted 5% blows. You lose 5% if not steps are taken, then you lose again 5%, at least I hope it is a one off thing and not a story where you lose 5% to be kept away from you untill you prove that you did take steps to eliminate rape. In that case see what Scott said.