2006-05: Prison Rape Elimination Act

GENEVA -- Prison authorities in the United States have failed to protect inmates against sexual violence, a U.N. report said Friday.

The U.N. Committee Against Torture criticized slowness in investigating claims of sexual assault in prisons in the United States and said "appropriate measures to combat these abuses have not been implemented."
It noted that people of "differing sexual orientation" were particularly vulnerable.
The Prison Rape Elimination Act, signed into law by President Bush in 2003, was designed to combat sexual violence in prisons - once treated as a minor, if not invisible problem - by requiring states to draft prevention, education and monitoring plans.
According to background information in the 2003 law, at least 13 percent of the inmates in the United States have been sexually assaulted in prison.
California has the nation's largest state prison system with nearly 171,000 inmates. Elaine Jennings, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said: "We have the highest standard for humanitarian conditions in our prison system."

Hickman resigned in February, saying he was not getting the necessary support for reforming the prison system.
The United States, like the 140 other nations that have signed the Convention Against Torture, must submit reports to the committee to show it is applying the rules.
In its last review of U.S. anti-torture policies six years ago - before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States - the committee cited the United States' use of electroshock devices to restrain prisoners, "excessively harsh" conditions in prisons for the most violent offenders and police ill-treatment of civilians.
It recommended Washington end the use of stun belts and restraint chairs, finding that their use "almost invariably" breached the convention ratified by Washington in 1994.
In Friday's report, the committee reiterated its concern over electroshock devices, which it said have caused "several deaths." It also urged the United States to improve conditions for women and children in custody.