The Massachusetts Department of Correction’s (DOC) Action Plan Towards Continued PREA Compliance

The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) provides that a state or territory whose governor does not certify full compliance with the standards is subject to the loss of five percent of any DOJ grant funds that it would otherwise receive for prison purposes, unless the governor submits an assurance that such five percent will be used only for the purpose of enabling the state to achieve and certify full compliance with the standards in future years. See 42 U.S.C. 15607(c). The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program is one of the DOJ grant programs subject to this requirement in fiscal year (FY) 2017.

The goals of the FY 2017 PREA Reallocation JAG Program are to support implementation of the national standards to prevent, detect, and respond to prison rape in order to protect individuals from sexual abuse and sexual harassment in confinement. The grant recipient will use awarded PREA Reallocation funds to pay for PREA audits, and to purchase equipment and software. Specifically, the funds will be used to purchase cameras and additional tracking technology to enhance facility surveillance systems. The remaining funds will be used to purchase Tableau software to collect, track and report data. This web-based report, dashboard and data visualization software will provide a centralized reporting and data collection system with information management tools that can be used to track PREA related events and audits. The overall goal is to achieve full compliance with the standards.

NCA/NCF