Pub.L. 108-080 To designate the United States courthouse located at 101 North Fifth Street in Muskogee, Oklahoma, as the ``Ed Edmondson United States Courthouse''. <> ...

	Web GovRecords.org

[[Page 971]]

                   PRISON RAPE ELIMINATION ACT OF 2003

[[Page 117 STAT. 972]]

Public Law 108-79
108th Congress

                                 An Act


 
To 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. <<NOTE: Sept. 4, 2003 -  [S. 1435]>> 

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the <<NOTE: Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003.>> United States of 
America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. <<NOTE: 45 USC 15601 note.>> SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Prison Rape 
Elimination Act of 2003''.
    (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents of this Act is as 
follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. Purposes.
Sec. 4. National prison rape statistics, data, and research.
Sec. 5. Prison rape prevention and prosecution.
Sec. 6. Grants to protect inmates and safeguard communities.
Sec. 7. National Prison Rape Reduction Commission.
Sec. 8. Adoption and effect of national standards.
Sec. 9. Requirement that accreditation organizations adopt accreditation 
           standards.
Sec. 10. Definitions.

SEC. 2. <<NOTE: 42 USC 15601.>> FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) 2,100,146 persons were incarcerated in the United States 
        at the end of 2001: 1,324,465 in Federal and State prisons and 
        631,240 in county and local jails. In 1999, there were more than 
        10,000,000 separate admissions to and discharges from prisons 
        and jails.
            (2) Insufficient research has been conducted and 
        insufficient data reported on the extent of prison rape. 
        However, experts have conservatively estimated that at least 13 
        percent of the inmates in the United States have been sexually 
        assaulted in prison. Many inmates have suffered repeated 
        assaults. Under this estimate, nearly 200,000 inmates now 
        incarcerated have been or will be the victims of prison rape. 
        The total number of inmates who have been sexually assaulted in 
        the past 20 years likely exceeds 1,000,000.
            (3) Inmates with mental illness are at increased risk of 
        sexual victimization. America's jails and prisons house more 
        mentally ill individuals than all of the Nation's psychiatric 
        hospitals combined. As many as 16 percent of inmates in State 
        prisons and jails, and 7 percent of Federal inmates, suffer from 
        mental illness.
            (4) Young first-time offenders are at increased risk of 
        sexual victimization. Juveniles are 5 times more likely to be 
        sexually

[[Page 117 STAT. 973]]

        assaulted in adult rather than juvenile facilities--often within 
        the first 48 hours of incarceration.
            (5) Most prison staff are not adequately trained or prepared 
        to prevent, report, or treat inmate sexual assaults.
            (6) Prison rape often goes unreported, and inmate victims 
        often receive inadequate treatment for the severe physical and 
        psychological effects of sexual assault--if they receive 
        treatment at all.
            (7) HIV and AIDS are major public health problems within 
        America's correctional facilities. In 2000, 25,088 inmates in 
        Federal and State prisons were known to be infected with HIV/
        AIDS. In 2000, HIV/AIDS accounted for more than 6 percent of all 
        deaths in Federal and State prisons. Infection rates for other 
        sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, and hepatitis B and 
        C are also far greater for prisoners than for the American 
        population as a whole. Prison rape undermines the public health 
        by contributing to the spread of these diseases, and often 
        giving a potential death sentence to its victims.
            (8) Prison rape endangers the public safety by making 
        brutalized inmates more likely to commit crimes when they are 
        released--as 600,000 inmates are each year.
            (9) The frequently interracial character of prison sexual 
        assaults significantly exacerbates interracial tensions, both 
        within prison and, upon release of perpetrators and victims from 
        prison, in the community at large.
            (10) Prison rape increases the level of homicides and other 
        violence against inmates and staff, and the risk of 
        insurrections and riots.
            (11) Victims of prison rape suffer severe physical and 
        psychological effects that hinder their ability to integrate 
        into the community and maintain stable employment upon their 
        release from prison. They are thus more likely to become 
        homeless and/or require government assistance.
            (12) Members of the public and government officials are 
        largely unaware of the epidemic character of prison rape and the 
        day-to-day horror experienced by victimized inmates.
            (13) The high incidence of sexual assault within prisons 
        involves actual and potential violations of the United States 
        Constitution. In Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994), the 
        Supreme Court ruled that deliberate indifference to the 
        substantial risk of sexual assault violates prisoners' rights 
        under the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause of the Eighth 
        Amendment. The Eighth Amendment rights of State and local 
        prisoners are protected through the Due Process Clause of the 
        Fourteenth Amendment. Pursuant to the power of Congress under 
        Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress may take 
        action to enforce those rights in States where officials have 
        demonstrated such indifference. States that do not take basic 
        steps to abate prison rape by adopting standards that do not 
        generate significant additional expenditures demonstrate such 
        indifference. Therefore, such States are not entitled to the 
        same level of Federal benefits as other States.
            (14) The high incidence of prison rape undermines the 
        effectiveness and efficiency of United States Government 
        expenditures through grant programs such as those dealing with 
        health care; mental health care; disease prevention; crime 
        prevention, investigation, and prosecution; prison construction,

[[Page 117 STAT. 974]]

        maintenance, and operation; race relations; poverty; 
        unemployment and homelessness. The effectiveness and efficiency 
        of these federally funded grant programs are compromised by the 
        failure of State officials to adopt policies and procedures that 
        reduce the incidence of prison rape in that the high incidence 
        of prison rape--
                    (A) increases the costs incurred by Federal, State, 
                and local jurisdictions to administer their prison 
                systems;
                    (B) increases the levels of violence, directed at 
                inmates and at staff, within prisons;
                    (C) increases health care expenditures, both inside 
                and outside of prison systems, and reduces the 
                effectiveness of disease prevention programs by 
                substantially increasing the incidence and spread of 
                HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, and other 
                diseases;
                    (D) increases mental health care expenditures, both 
                inside and outside of prison systems, by substantially 
                increasing the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder, 
                depression, suicide, and the exacerbation of existing 
                mental illnesses among current and former inmates;
                    (E) increases the risks of recidivism, civil strife, 
                and violent crime by individuals who have been 
                brutalized by prison rape; and
                    (F) increases the level of interracial tensions and 
                strife within prisons and, upon release of perpetrators 
                and victims, in the community at large.
            (15) The high incidence of prison rape has a significant 
        effect on interstate commerce because it increases 
        substantially--
                    (A) the costs incurred by Federal, State, and local 
                jurisdictions to administer their prison systems;
                    (B) the incidence and spread of HIV, AIDS, 
                tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, and other diseases, 
                contributing to increased health and medical 
                expenditures throughout the Nation;
                    (C) the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder, 
                depression, suicide, and the exacerbation of existing 
                mental illnesses among current and former inmates, 
                contributing to increased health and medical 
                expenditures throughout the Nation; and
                    (D) the risk of recidivism, civil strife, and 
                violent crime by individuals who have been brutalized by 
                prison rape.

SEC. 3. <<NOTE: 42 USC 15602.>> PURPOSES.

    The purposes of this Act are to--
            (1) establish a zero-tolerance standard for the incidence of 
        prison rape in prisons in the United States;
            (2) make the prevention of prison rape a top priority in 
        each prison system;
            (3) develop and implement national standards for the 
        detection, prevention, reduction, and punishment of prison rape;
            (4) increase the available data and information on the 
        incidence of prison rape, consequently improving the management 
        and administration of correctional facilities;
            (5) standardize the definitions used for collecting data on 
        the incidence of prison rape;

[[Page 117 STAT. 975]]

            (6) increase the accountability of prison officials who fail 
        to detect, prevent, reduce, and punish prison rape;
            (7) protect the Eighth Amendment rights of Federal, State, 
        and local prisoners;
            (8) increase the efficiency and effectiveness of Federal 
        expenditures through grant programs such as those dealing with 
        health care; mental health care; disease prevention; crime 
        prevention, investigation, and prosecution; prison construction, 
        maintenance, and operation; race relations; poverty; 
        unemployment; and homelessness; and
            (9) reduce the costs that prison rape imposes on interstate 
        commerce.

SEC. 4. <<NOTE: 42 USC 15603.>> NATIONAL PRISON RAPE STATISTICS, DATA, 
            AND RESEARCH.

    (a) Annual Comprehensive Statistical Review.--
            (1) In general.--The Bureau of Justice Statistics of the 
        Department of Justice (in this section referred to as the 
        ``Bureau'') shall carry out, for each calendar year, a 
        comprehensive statistical review and analysis of the incidence 
        and effects of prison rape. The statistical review and analysis 
        shall include, but not be limited to the identification of the 
        common characteristics of--
                    (A) both victims and perpetrators of prison rape; 
                and
                    (B) prisons and prison systems with a high incidence 
                of prison rape.
            (2) Considerations.--In carrying out paragraph (1), the 
        Bureau shall consider--
                    (A) how rape should be defined for the purposes of 
                the statistical review and analysis;
                    (B) how the Bureau should collect information about 
                staff-on-inmate sexual assault;
                    (C) how the Bureau should collect information beyond 
                inmate self-reports of prison rape;
                    (D) how the Bureau should adjust the data in order 
                to account for differences among prisons as required by 
                subsection (c)(3);
                    (E) the categorization of prisons as required by 
                subsection (c)(4); and
                    (F) whether a preliminary study of prison rape 
                should be conducted to inform the methodology of the 
                comprehensive statistical review.
            (3) Solicitation of views.--The Bureau of Justice Statistics 
        shall solicit views from representatives of the following: State 
        departments of correction; county and municipal jails; juvenile 
        correctional facilities; former inmates; victim advocates; 
        researchers; and other experts in the area of sexual assault.
            (4) Sampling techniques.--The review and analysis under 
        paragraph (1) shall be based on a random sample, or other 
        scientifically appropriate sample, of not less than 10 percent 
        of all Federal, State, and county prisons, and a representative 
        sample of municipal prisons. The selection shall include at 
        least one prison from each State. The selection of facilities 
        for sampling shall be made at the latest practicable date prior 
        to conducting the surveys and shall not be disclosed to any 
        facility or prison system official prior to the time period 
        studied in the survey. Selection of a facility for sampling 
        during any

[[Page 117 STAT. 976]]

        year shall not preclude its selection for sampling in any 
        subsequent year.
            (5) Surveys.--In <<NOTE: Confidentiality.>> carrying out the 
        review and analysis under paragraph (1), the Bureau shall, in 
        addition to such other methods as the Bureau considers 
        appropriate, use surveys and other statistical studies of 
        current and former inmates from a sample of Federal, State, 
        county, and municipal prisons. The Bureau shall ensure the 
        confidentiality of each survey participant.
            (6) Participation in survey.--Federal, State, or local 
        officials or facility administrators that receive a request from 
        the Bureau under subsection (a)(4) or (5) will be required to 
        participate in the national survey and provide access to any 
        inmates under their legal custody.

    (b) Review Panel on Prison Rape.--
            (1) Establishment.--To assist the Bureau in carrying out the 
        review and analysis under subsection (a), there is established, 
        within the Department of Justice, the Review Panel on Prison 
        Rape (in this section referred to as the ``Panel'').
            (2) Membership.--
                    (A) Composition.--The Panel shall be composed of 3 
                members, each of whom shall be appointed by the Attorney 
                General, in consultation with the Secretary of Health 
                and Human Services.
                    (B) Qualifications.--Members of the Panel shall be 
                selected from among individuals with knowledge or 
                expertise in matters to be studied by the Panel.
            (3) Public hearings.--
                    (A) In general.--The duty of the Panel shall be to 
                carry out, for each calendar year, public hearings 
                concerning the operation of the three prisons with the 
                highest incidence of prison rape and the two prisons 
                with the lowest incidence of prison rape in each 
                category of facilities identified under subsection 
                (c)(4). The Panel shall hold a separate hearing 
                regarding the three Federal or State prisons with the 
                highest incidence of prison rape. The purpose of these 
                hearings shall be to collect evidence to aid in the 
                identification of common characteristics of both victims 
                and perpetrators of prison rape, and the identification 
                of common characteristics of prisons and prison systems 

Other Popular 108th Congressional Public Laws Documents:

Other Documents:

108th Congressional Public Laws Records and Documents