April 2, 2014
CONTACT: Tom Hargis, Director of Communications, ACLU of Texas, 832.291.4776; [email protected]
Austin – Gov. Rick Perry recently announced that Texas state prisons and local jails would not comply with regulations outlined in the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), unanimously passed by the U.S. Congress more than a decade ago. The law is designed to reduce sexual assault among prisoners. A 2013 report from the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics singled out more detention facilities in Texas than in any other state for having high levels of inmate-on-inmate sexual abuse.
Statement from Matthew Simpson, policy strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas:
“Governor Perry’s refusal to act to decrease sexual assaults among the 200,000 people incarcerated in Texas defies explanation. Failure to comply with PREA’s minimal standards places youth in danger in adult facilities, undermines the reporting and prevention of sexual assault, and risks the loss of federal funding for already underfunded prisons.”
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