Inmate Sexual Assault within the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services: Prevention and Intervention

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 Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) proposes to systematically address the issue of inmate sexual assault by enhancing the identification of sexual victims and sexual perpetrators by providing best practice prevention and intervention services to these groups in the prison setting. NDCS will use FY 2006 Protecting Inmates and Safeguarding Communities funds to refine the way high-risk groups are identified, classified, and placed within the NDCS. The NDCS will extend the 2003 Serious Violent Offenders Reentry Initiatve and the 2004 Protecting Inmates grant by enhancing the development and validation of an external classification system and a risk and needs assessments instrument which allows for identification of violent offenders and targets interventions and transition services for this high need population. These improvements will also affect the process of developing an internal classification system to assist with placement, housing, and identifying inmates who are a high risk for sexual predation or sexual victimization.

The FY 2006 Protecting Inmate award will fund seven major enhancements that will improve the services NDCS provides to inmates at-risk for sexual victimization or sex predation. The seven enhancements include: 1) utilize computer-assisted interviews to increase the amount of disclosure of sexual assault and victimization; 2) initiate psychopathy screening and assessment for all inmates upon initial classification; 3) extend the follow-up period on the internal classification instrument and collect evaluation data; 4) continue refinement and evaluation of the initial sexual predator/victim screening instrument for validity and efficacy; 5) increase services for victims and potential victims; 6) expand interventions for high-risk inmates of sexual predation; and 7) provide preventive mental health services to inmates who have been identified as having a high risk of exploitive/impulsive behaviors.

CA/NCF