Commission Releases Report on Combating Prison Rape

The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission -- created by Congress in 2003 -- today released its final report and proposed standards. The standards include a supplement for immigration detention facilities.

The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times reports:

Part of the commission’s goal was to create standards “so that when you hear about a prison rape, the warden doesn’t just wink and nod and say take care of it, but that it’s investigated,” said commissioner Jamie Fellner, senior counsel to the U.S. Program of Human Rights Watch.

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[Commission chairman, Judge Reggie] Walton also said he hoped that its guidelines would become a legal standard of care, which prisoners could use as the basis of lawsuits if they were raped.