Michigan Juvenile Justice PREA Program

Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) in 2003 with unanimous support from both parties. Congress intended that PREA would provide for the analysis of the incidence and effects of prison rape in Federal, State, and local institutions and to provide information, resources, recommendations, and funding to protect individuals from prison rape.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Juvenile Justice Programs (JJP) is responsible for ensuring Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) compliance at its three public juvenile facilities and is also responsible for overseeing compliance efforts and monitoring at 25 facilities that the state contracts with to provide juvenile justice residential services. It is important for MDHHS to address any sexual abuse of youth in these facilities. The department must protect youth from sexual assault or sexual harassment by staff members or other youth. PREA standards require that the state’s PREA juvenile coordinator oversee PREA implementation efforts. The PREA coordinator has provided technical assistance, training and consultation to public and private residential facilities to assist facilities in achieving compliance. Informal evaluation in 2010 indicated that Michigan juvenile justice facilities complied with only a few of the draft standards. Since the standards were finalized and made law in August 2012, Michigan has achieved a significant percentage of compliance in both public and private facilities. This has been achieved primarily through the efforts of JJP and the PREA coordinator to provide technical assistance to facilities and organize the agency’s activities and overall response to the challenge of achieving compliance.
Michigan proposes to continue compliance, monitoring and training activities and to enhance efforts to achieve full compliance in all facilities, public and private, where there is partial or non-compliance with the federal PREA Standards 115.311. Travel for MDHHS’s certified PREA auditor will be increased to provide technical assistance with audits, drafting of appropriate policies and procedures, training and enhancing of internal systems for monitoring. The overriding goal is the establishment of specific methods for achieving compliance with PREA law and those standards that support the law.

NCA/NCF

Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) in 2003 with unanimous support from both parties. Congress intended that PREA would provide for the analysis of the incidence and effects of prison rape in Federal, State, and local institutions and to provide information, resources, recommendations, and funding to protect individuals from prison rape.

The grantee plans to support PREA programming in youth facilities, primarily through the provision of training and technical assistance which will be provided by Michigan's juvenile PREA coordinator. This award will also support audits of juvenile facilities to assess PREA compliance. NCA/NCF