Supporting PREA
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CCA’S LEADERSHIP ON THE ELIMINATION OF INMATE SEXUAL ABUSE Sexual abuse is an important public policy and corrections industry issue that affects all correctional facilities, our employees and the inmates entrusted to our care. For years, CCA has treated all sexual abuse as a "zero tolerance" issue. For example, the article “CCA and PREA: Always Aware, Staying Vigilant” summarizes key features of CCA’s comprehensive approach to raising awareness, enhancing education, and heightening sensitivity about and affirming our zero tolerance approach toward inmate sexual abuse. CCA has endeavored to stay on the leading edge of efforts to eliminate inmate sexual abuse by establishing and maintaining a best practice sexual abuse prevention program. CCA’s program includes best practice inmate reporting methods, inmate awareness initiatives, staff training programs, inmate education, investigation procedures, and audit processes. Interested persons can find information about our practices pertaining to the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA) on our websites, including www.CCA.com and www.InsideCCA.com, where we regularly report on PREA initiatives. Key features of CCA’s sexual abuse prevention program include: - Regular oversight by our Board of Directors, including quarterly review of key program information; - Management oversight of the program through a PREA committee consisting of high-level company officers and health care, legal, and corrections professionals; - Comprehensive sexual assault prevention and incident reporting policies and procedures; - Inmate access to a sexual assault prevention and reporting hotline via toll-free telephone numbers; - Education for inmates and employees, as well as other awareness efforts (such as posters prominently placed throughout our facilities) that emphasize our zero tolerance approach and encourage employees and inmates to report allegations of sexual assault or harassment; - Review by the PREA committee of every allegation of sexual abuse at a CCA facility – from receipt of the incident report through investigation and enforcement of applicable policies, as well as referral to law enforcement where appropriate; and - Auditing of compliance with our standards and procedures by CCA’s Quality Assurance team. 1 PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE Since passage of PREA, the Attorney General was required to promulgate standards to ensure the prevention, detection, investigation, reporting, and prosecution of inmate sexual abuse. In May of 2012, the Attorney General issued a final rule containing those standards, which is anticipated to eventually govern every state, federal, and local correctional facility (the "DOJ PREA standards"). The final rule is featured on the U.S. Department of Justice’s website. With the promulgation of standards by the Attorney General and U.S. Department of Justice, CCA has continued to refine our already extensive efforts to eliminate inmate sexual abuse. Where necessary, we are adopting changes to our policies and procedures to ensure consistency with the standards, as well as the expectations of our government partners. OVERSIGHT OF CCA’S PREA EFFORTS CCA’s Board of Directors exercises regular oversight with respect to CCA’s efforts to reduce and eliminate inmate sexual abuse. Since PREA was adopted by Congress in 2003, the Board has monitored CCA’s adoption of policies, procedures, and practices related to the law to address the challenges presented by inmate sexual abuse. The Board of Directors receives a report regarding PREA matters on a quarterly basis at each regularly scheduled Board meeting. Through these reports, the Board continually monitors the effectiveness of CCA’s sexual abuse prevention, detection, and response policies, practices, and training. The Board of Directors also regularly visits correctional facilities operated by CCA where Board members are able to directly observe our efforts in improving inmate safety and preventing sexual abuse. In addition to strong Board and management oversight of our program, our government partners provide an additional layer of oversight and enforcement of related contractual and policy requirements. These enforcement efforts include, among other initiatives, regular on-site inspections, agency audits, and joint training initiatives. Further, government and law enforcement officials with oversight and investigatory authority have unfettered access to CCA facilities and the inmates and detainees housed in CCA’s facilities. 2 REPORTING AND TRANSPARENCY CCA currently reports statistical data regarding PREA allegations on an annual basis to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) for CCA facilities selected by the BJS. The BJS in turn compiles CCA data with comparable data from other corrections providers and makes publicly available an annual report on inmate sexual abuse. These reports provide detailed statistical data regarding allegations of inmate sexual abuse at facilities managed by CCA and other private and public operators, thus providing industry-wide context for inmate sexual abuse allegations. BJS reports containing data reported by CCA can be found in the BJS' "Prison Rape Elimination Act (Sexual Violence In Correctional Facilities)" series, which is available via the BJS’ website. Appendices 25 through 28, of the BJS’ report “Sexual Victimization Reported by Adult Correctional Authorities, 2007–2008,” contain data specific to CCA and other non- public sector correctional systems. These appendices can be found at the end of this document. In addition to data gathered and published by the BJS, the DOJ PREA standards include additional data collection and reporting standards for corrections agencies. The standards require agencies to collect PREA allegation data and conduct an annual review of the data for trends and corrective actions. Agencies are also required to publish aggregated data and a report on its data review on an annual basis. CCA is prepared to co ful w th it government agency partners in their data collection, review and reporting obligations under the standards and to concurrently provide additional data and review reporting via mply ly i s the CCA website. OUR COMMITMENT CCA is committed to respecting the rights and dignity of the inmates in our care. We believe that every inmate should have a safe and secure correctional experience. This belief is rooted in our Constitutional rights and our shared morality. To this end, we remain vigilant in our compliance with In addition to our unyielding ethical commitment to the rights and dignity of the inmates in PREA and the prevention of sexual abuse. our care, CCA is subject to and embraces the many external systems and catalysts in place to prevent PREA violations. We are subject to strong oversight in this area from our Board of Directors and government partners. This oversight, together with existing disclosure requirements, pending regulations, and the public scrutiny that accompanies alleged failures to protect inmates from sexual abuse, provides compelling motivation to take all appropriate measures to prevent inmate sexual abuse. 3 APPENDIX The following pages are taken directly from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics’ Special Report – Sexual Victimization Reports by Adult Correctional Authorities, 2007-2008 by Paul Guerino and Allen J. Beck, Ph.D., BJS statisticians. The full text of the report can be found here. 4 APPENDIX TABLE 25 Allegations of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization reported by private prison and jail authorities, by year and type of victimization, 2007-2008 2008 2007 Average Reported inmate-on-inmate Reported inmate-on-inmate Average Reported inmate-on-inmate Reported inmate-on-inmate daily nonconsensual sexual acts abusive sexual contacts daily nonconsensual sexual acts abusive sexual contacts Jurisdiction and facility population Allegations Substantiated Allegations Substantiated population Allegations Substantiated Allegations Substantiated Total / 56 6 14 4 / 58 6 27 0 Arizona Eloy Det. Ctr. (CCA) 1,456 0 0 1 0 1,449 3 0 1 0 Colorado Bent Co. Corr. Fac. (CCA) 847 1 0 1 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ High Plains Corr. Fac. (GRW/CCI)a,b ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 244 8 0 19 0 Florida Bay Corr. Inst. (CCA) 25 2 0 0 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Lake City Corr. Fac.(CCA) 906 4 0 0 0 891 3 0 0 0 South Bay Corr. Fac. (GEO)c 1,858 4 0 // ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Georgia Coffee Corr. Fac.(CCA)c,d 1,691 ~ ~ / / 1,690 10 0 // D. Ray James Prison 1,796 0 0 2 0 1,728 0 0 0 0 Wheeler Corr. Fac. (CCA)d,e 1,692 1 0 / / 1,680 3 0 // Idaho Idaho Corr. Fac. (CCA)c 1,493 0 0 / / 1,464 0 0 1 0 Illinois Substance Abuse Services-Marion (FWHS) 39 0 0 1 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Kansas Leavenworth Det. Ctr. (CCA) 1,057 1 0 0 0 962 0 0 0 0 Kentucky Lee Adjustment Ctr. (CCA) 684 2 0 0 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Louisiana Allen Corr. Ctr. (GEO)b 1,469 0 0 0 0 1,530 2 0 0 0 Mississippi East Mississippi Corr. Fac.(GEO) 950 2 0 2 1 870 2 1 0 0 Tallahatchie Co. Corr. Fac. (CCA) 1,685 0 0 0 0 1,500 5 0 2 0 Walnut Grove Youth Corr. Fac. (CCI) 1,019 1 0 0 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Montana Helena Pre-Release Ctr. (BACS) 92 1 1 0 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ New Mexico Lea Co. Corr. Fac. (GEO)f 1,238 1 0 0 0 1,240 0 0 0 0 Ohio Oriana House, Inc. 16 2 0 0 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Oklahoma Cimarron Corr. Fac. (CCA) 993 5 2 0 0 1,021 6 3 0 0 David L. Moss Criminal Justice Ctr.g 1,425 1 1 3 3 1,517 0 0 0 0 Davis Corr. Fac.(CCA) 1,062 6 0 1 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Diamondback Corr. Fac. (CCA) 2,150 1 0 0 0 2,093 0 0 0 0 Lawton Corr. Fac. (GEO)e 2,480 8 2 / / 2,498 8 0 2 0 Tennessee Hardeman Co. Corr. Ctr. (CCA) 1,963 2 0 0 0 1,962 0 0 0 0 South Central Ctr. (CCA) 1,633 4 0 2 0 1,642 5 1 2 0 Whiteville Corr.