The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) just released the 2011-2012 findings from the most recent surveys of jail and prison inmates about incidences of sexual victimization.1 Based on this information, 4. 0 percent of state and federal prison inmates and 3. 2 percent of jail inmates within the United

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States reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission to the facility.2 In juvenile facilities, the numbers are even more troubling.

At least 17,100 adjudicated or committed youth (amounting to some 12 percent of the total population in juvenile detention facilities) reported having suffered sexual abuse within 12 months of arriving at their facility, with rates as high as 36 percent in specific facilities.3 On June 20, 2012, DOJ published the Final Rule creating standards as required by the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

The standards apply to adult prisons and jails, juvenile correctional facilities, police lockups, and community residential centers.

The standards, which took effect on August 20, 2012, seek to prevent sexual abuse and to reduce the harm that it causes.

The standards are grouped into 11 categories:
prevention planning; responsive planning; training and education; screening for risk of sexual victimization and abusiveness; reporting; official response following an inmate report; investigations; discipline; medical and mental care; data collection and review; and audits.

This program is funded under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, 42 USC 15601, et seq., and the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013, Pub.

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198, 25 5. Demonstration projects funded through this solicitation will support comprehensive approaches within state, tribal, and local adult and juvenile correctional facilities to prevent, detect, and respond to incidences of sexual victimization.