PREA Part II: Overview of Substantive Standards

My last post discussed the applicability of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) to North Carolina’s jails. Today’s post looks at the substantive standards themselves. These are the standards with which state prisons must comply to avoid the state losing five percent of certain federal grant funds, and with which local jails may have to comply for one of the reasons outlined in my prior post. The overarching theme of PREA is that covered agencies must adopt a written policy of zero tolerance toward all forms of sexual abuse and sexual harassment. 28 C.F.R. § 115.11. Sexual abuse and sexual harassment are defined broadly to include all the types of contact, threats, advances, displays, and comments you would expect. § 115.6. Some of the PREA standards will already be satisfied under sheriffs’ existing regulatory, statutory, and constitutional duties to protect the inmates in their custody. See, e.g., G.S. 153A-224(a) (duty to protect prisoners from assaults by other prisoners). But some will not. The summary that follows emphasizes those standards that strike me as most likely to require substantial changes to current jail practices in North Carolina. Supervision and monitoring. PREA standards do not set a specific staff-to-inmate ratio for jails, but they do require “adequate levels of staffing,” augmented by video monitoring where applicable. § 115.13. Facilities are required to adopt a policy of having intermediate or higher-level supervisors conduct unannounced rounds on both day and night shifts to deter staff sexual abuse and harassment. § 115.13(d). Supervisor rounds are not [...]