Comment on FR Doc # 2010-04907

Docket No. OAG-131 Dear Mr. Hinchman: I believe that you and I both find it appalling that prisoners are raped in America’s prisons with great frequency. [As you are doubtless aware, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has found that 4.5 percent of inmates are sexually assaulted each year--and even worse, BJS has found that among juvenile detainees the rate is almost 12 percent.] No matter what punishment a prisoner has been assigned by the courts, no human being deserves to be raped on top of that sentence. It is a scandal that people housed in government facilities are not safe from sexual attack. The good news, of course, is that those BJS surveys have also shown that not all prisons are unsafe. Many prisons have taken steps to reduce opportunities for prisoner rape. The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC) spent several years listening to testimony from victims who were left vulnerable to predators and who were given no assistance in recovering from their rape, as well as from many dedicated corrections officials who have made stopping prisoner rape a priority—and done it successfully--distilling these real life experiences (as well as feedback from the publishing of the concomitant proposed standards for guiding prison officials as they work to attain zero tolerance for prison rape) into the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). Those standards proved so helpful and practical to prison administrators that the states of California and Oregon implemented them immediately. As your training has informed you, “justice delayed is justice denied.” The standards proposed by the NPREC do not need changing. Mr. Holder has a strong commitment to end prison rape, and he has a complete understanding of the issues involved in the standards. Sadly, it appears the Attorney General has been saddled with a timeline and process that will duplicate what the Commission has already done and which will delay the implementation of the standards by at least a year. Delaying adoption of the standards is unnecessary. I urge the Department of Justice to adopt them as soon as possible. Sexual abuse in prisons and jails is always a crime and can no longer be tolerated. The NPREC report standards provide concrete, well-researched methods for prisons and jails to prevent, detect and prosecute rape. I support them and urge approval of these standards so that they become binding for all federal prisons. Sincerely, Douglas P. Reiman, concerned U.S. citizen, taxpayer, voter