An Assessment of the Knowledge, Support, and Behavior Surrounding the Implementation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act

• Published date: 01 July 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00938548231164966
• Author: Hayden P. Smith,Frank Ferdik,Creaig Dunton,Qassim Bolaji
• Date: 01 July 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2023, Vol. 50, No. 7, July 2023, 1016 –1034.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548231164966

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2023 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

1016

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE KNOWLEDGE,

SUPPORT, AND BEHAVIOR SURROUNDING THE

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRISON RAPE

ELIMINATION ACT

HAYDEN P. SMITH

University of South Carolina

FRANK FERDIK

Austin Peay State University

CREAIG DUNTON

Western New England University

QASSIM BOLAJI

University of South Carolina

The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was designed to eliminate from corrections systems all acts of sexual violence.

PREA’s success will be determined by whether corrections staff and incarcerated persons support this law, understand its

legal elements, and are enforcing it according to it’s original intentions. To date, few studies have examined whether members

of both populations do indeed support PREA, and whether they are enforcing it correctly. To explore these issues, question-

naire data were collected from corrections staff (N = 222) and incarcerated persons (N = 490) housed in three medium-level

security prisons located in the southeastern United States. While both groups expressed personal support for PREA, neither

perceived the other as supportive of this law. Moreover, while an overwhelming majority of each sample responded correctly

to questions about PREA, there were some incorrect answers too, specifically with regard to mandatory reporting procedures.

Policy implications are discussed.

Keywords: Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA); decision-making; corrections staff; incarcerated populations; sexual

violence; prison

The challenge of addressing sexual violence occurring in the correctional system has

long been acknowledged. Decades of research indicate that sexual assault and/or

harassment are problematic behaviors within jails, prisons, and other forms of corrections

(Buehler, 2021; Davis, 1968; Gaes & Goldberg, 2004; Lockwood, 1980), resulting in a

range of negative health issues for survivors. Common responses to sexual victimization

include, but are not limited to, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, rape trauma syndrome,

AUTHORS’ NOTE: We have no known conflicts of interest. Correspondence concerning this article should

be addressed to Hayden P. Smith, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of South

Carolina, 1305 Greene St., Columbia, SC 29208; e-mail: smithhp@mailbox.sc.edu.

1164966CJBXXX10.1177/00938548231164966Criminal Justice and BehaviorSmith et al. / Knowledge, Behavior and Support of PREA

research-article2023

Smith et al. / KNOWLEDGE, BEHAVIOR AND SUPPORT OF PREA 1017

as well as self-harming, suicidal ideation, and suicidal behaviors. Sexual assault survivors

may also experience physical injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and are at

greater risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (Buehler, 2021). In total, sexual

victimization occurring in corrections can lead to consequences that are often serious, long

term, and manifold.

While early studies reported the presence of sexual violence in corrections, it was not

until a 2001 Human Rights Watch report was published that the issue of sexual misconduct

in jails and prisons gained much needed attention. Here, interviews with 220 incarcerated

persons across 37 U.S. states revealed a high prevalence of sexual violence occurring in

prison, with participants who survived such traumatic experiences expressing feelings of

fear, regret, anxiety, despair, and anger, with several also self-reporting repeated attempts at

suicide (Human Rights Watch, 2001). Prior to this publication, the issue of sexual violence

occurring in corrections was largely ignored, minimized, or dismissed as a joke (perspec-

tives that are still reinforced by mass media; see Smyth, 2011). Struckman-Johnson and

Struckman-Johnson (2006) even found that incarcerated survivors of sexual violence were

routinely portrayed as “persons deemed unworthy trapped behind walls with their sexual

assailants” (p. 1591). The release of the Human Rights Watch report though generated pub-

lic outcry over conditions of confinement, leading a coalition of health care professionals,

victim advocates, human rights workers, civil rights activists, scholars, and legislators to

work toward improving how sexual violence was being addressed within corrections facili-

ties. This reform movement led to the U.S. Congress unanimously passing the Prison Rape

Elimination Act (PREA) in 2003.

PREA relies on a comprehensive approach to the American correctional system, with

application to federal and state prisons, local jails, private facilities, police detention centers

and lockups, immigration detention centers, military prisons, and Indian county facilities

(Smith, 2020a). The development of national standards for the detection, prevention, reduc-

tion, reporting, and institutional responses to sexual harassment and/or sexual abuse consti-

tuted a fundamental goal of the PREA legislation (Rudes et al., 2020). This places value on

evidence-based policy implementation, with partnerships between the Bureau of Justice

Statistics (BJS), health and human rights organizations, scholars, and correctional agencies

being crucial. Central to PREA is a “zero-tolerance” approach to sexual assault and/or and

harassment, with agencies endorsing a response, report, and investigate model for every

sexual assault allegation received.

To achieve these goals, implementation efforts surrounding PREA emphasize the need

for training, socialization, and culture change in correctional administrators, officers, other

staff, as well as members of the incarcerated population. Perspectives of and decisions

undertaken toward PREA by these collective groups are fundamental determinants of

whether it will achieve its desired goals of eradicating from institutional environments all

acts of sexual violence. In short, PREA cannot succeed without either the support for, or

effective enforcement of, this law by both corrections staff and incarcerated people. Since

concern persists over the continued occurrence of sexual violence within corrections,

despite the existence of PREA, it therefore becomes important to empirically examine how

this federal legislation is being received and applied by the individuals tasked with enforc-

ing it. To address this issue, questionnaire data were collected from incarcerated persons

and corrections staff housed in three medium-level state prisons located in the southeastern

United States. Insights gathered from each group may educate interested stakeholders into