Continuing the Culture of Safety

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 Travis County Juvenile Probation Department (TCJPD) will use their FY14 PREA grant funding to create policies that will help guide staff in ways that protect youth from victimization and maintain the level of zero founded sexual abuse allegations. Through this project, TCJPD addresses the third Priority Consideration: "Propose to address specific confinement facilities that demonstrate significant progress in PREA-related policy and protocol review and which propose to use project funds to implement clearly prioritized and demonstrated needs and agree to provide a report on the improvement efforts so that others may learn from the experience."
CA/NCF