Attaining Full Compliance with the PREA Standards

The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Program provides funding to states, units of local government, and federally recognized Indian tribes to support comprehensive approaches within state, tribal, and local adult and juvenile correctional facilities to prevent, detect, and respond to incidences of sexual victimization. The PREA Program provides funding to eligible applicants for demonstration projects within confinement settings, including adult prisons and jails; juvenile facilities; community corrections facilities; law enforcement lockups and other temporary holding facilities; and tribal detention facilities. Applicants must successfully communicate a comprehensive approach to the prevention, detection, and response to the incidence of sexual abuse and clearly prioritize gaps which are as of yet unaddressed, either programmatically or through changes in policy and procedures, as they relate to implementation of the PREA standards. The goal of this program is to assist local adult and juvenile facilities in implementing prevention, identification, and response mechanisms that will reduce the incidence of sexual abuse in confinement facilities.

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections (WIDOC) will utilize their FY14 PREA grant to continue fostering a zero-tolerance culture among its staff and offender population. WIDOC will use multiple strategies that target specific PREA Standards involving complex implementation requirements at 13 identified correctional facilities that have been selected to participate in Wisconsin's first audit cycle. This multifaceted approach to establishing a zero-tolerance culture within the WIDOC is designed to impact four areas: 1) provide a consistent and comprehensive educational, detection and response curriculum for staff, contractors, volunteers, and community partners; 2) provide a consistent and comprehensive gender-specific educational, detection and reporting curriculum for offenders; 3) develop and provide a training for trainers curriculum for the PREA Compliance Managers and Victim Services Coordinators at each facility; and 4) integrate, refine, and analyze the Department's current PREA related databases and proposed sexual victimization/perpetrator risk assessment instrument.

CA/NCF