Iowa PREA Compliance Project

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 Iowa Department of Corrections has nine facilities that are under the operational control of the Governor. All nine of these facilities have successfully completed a PREA audit. The reports from those audits are available at http://www.doc.state.ia.us/Prea. The final facility requiring PREA compliance is the State Training School for Boys at Eldora. This facility is the only juvenile correctional facility in the State of Iowa, and is under the operational control of the Iowa Department of Human Services. The State Training School went through a PREA audit during the week of July 11 – 15, 2016; however, the final report is not expected until early October 2016.

This project will help achieve the primary goal by helping fund potential program materials and hardware changes, installation or upgrades identified as deficiencies with the PREA requirements. The project would not involve ongoing expenses; for example, those associated with additional staff. The secondary goal of the project would be to defray the cost of a PREA audit for a couple of agencies that operate enhanced juvenile residential treatment facilities. These programs are exclusively for delinquent youth. Before Governor Branstad can sign the certificate of assurance the State Training School must achieve compliance with the PREA standards; this project will provide assistance to help achieve this goal.

NCA/NCF