Help Protect Kids in Adult Facilities: Tell Your State to Support the Prison Rape Elimination Act!

Juvenile Law Center,

Photo via Steve Liss

The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was signed into law in 2003 to protect our country’s bloated prison and jail population from sexual abuse, and in particular, to address the widespread sexual assault and rape of youth housed in adult facilities. More than a decade later, however, youth are still being raped, waiting for the protection they deserve in facilities nationwide.

PREA includes guidelines—known as the “Youthful Inmate Standard”—dictating how facilities must house and treat youth in order to protect them from sexual assault. These guidelines state:

  • No youth under 18 can be placed in a housing unit where contact will occur with adult inmates in a common space, shower area, or sleeping quarters.
  • Outside of housing units, agencies must either maintain ‘‘sight and sound separation’’—i.e., preventing adult inmates from seeing or communicating with youth—or provide direct staff supervision when the two are together.
  • Agencies must avoid placing youth in isolation to comply with this provision and must afford them daily exercise and any legally required special education services.
  • Agencies must provide youth access to other programs and work opportunities to the extent possible.

These guidelines are critical to ensuring that youth remain safe in adult facilities. In particular, the use of solitary confinement to keep youth “safe” in adult prisons and jails actually does the opposite. The Department of Justice has publicly recognized that “isolation of children is dangerous and inconsistent with best practices and that excessive isolation can constitute cruel and unusual punishment.”

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, over 50% of suicides among youth in detention occur in isolation, and for young people in adult jails, the suicide rates may be much higher. Causing one form of trauma to prevent another is no way to address the problem of sexual violence in prisons.

Despite this, facilities in many states have not yet come into compliance with this standard and other PREA standards. As reported by “The Crime Report,” some states, like Texas, have simply refused to comply with PREA—Governor Rick Perry called the standards to protect youth from being raped “a burden.” Other states are still revising their standards and lack the staffing to verify their compliance.

The U.S. Department of Justice has now set a deadline requiring states to come into compliance with PREA. By May 15, all 50 states must certify their compliance, or sign a letter agreeing to apply federal funds toward PREA compliance.

We see this looming date as an opportunity to hold state lawmakers accountable for the suffering of those in their custody.


How Can You Get Involved?

1. Send a letter to your state governor urging him or her to fully comply with PREA and protect youth in adult facilities.

Find a template for the letter here.

2. Write a Letter to the Editor about why we need to protect youth from sexual assault in adult facilities.

Find a template for the letter here.  

3. Sign the petition to show your support.

The Campaign for Youth Justice has started a petition on Change.org, asking governors across the country to certify compliance with PREA’s Youthful Inmate Standard by removing youth from adult prisons and making the Youthful Inmate Standard a priority. Sign the petition here.

4. Spread the word over Facebook and Twitter.

Visit the Campaign for Youth Justice’s website for sample tweets and Facebook posts you can use to let people know why states must come into compliance with PREA.

It is our duty to do everything in our power as a nation to stop children from being sexually assaulted and harmed while they are in secure facilities—by ending the housing of children in adult facilities, or at least requiring states to guarantee meaningful separation of kids from adults.