Safe Prisons Program

The Protecting Inmates and Safeguarding Communities Discretionary Grant Program was created as a result of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (the Act), Public Law 108-79. The goal of the Act is to eradicate sexual assaults in all of the correctional facilities in this country, be they federal, state, or local in nature. Nevertheless, the statutory focus for this grant program is state and local correctional facilities. This program is divided into two parts: (1) Protecting Inmates and (2) Safeguarding Communities. The Protecting Inmates part focuses on providing funding to state and local agencies for the costs of personnel, training, technical assistance, and data collection in the areas of prevention, investigation, prosecution, and treatment of victims of inmate on inmate sexual assault in a correctional facility. The Safeguarding Communities component of the program focuses on assisting the states in developing and implementing strategies when making release decisions for sexual aggressors without compromising public safety and addressing the needs of the victims after release.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice will continue operating their Safe Prison Program by maintaining existing strategies to strengthen program activities, while also implementing a new component. This component will establish a formalized offender orientation program at the four largest intake facilities: Holliday, Middleton, Garza West and Woodman. This component is consistent with the agency's "Zero Tolerance" policy for sexual assaults. This course will focus specifically on preventing and reporting sexual assaults and include curriculum modules on prison life in general. Existing program activities will continue, including cross training staff and key stakeholders on sexual assault related issues, designating staff to assist with offender management, and continuously assessing staff's attitudes towards sexual assault and providing appropriate training.

CA/NCF