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More than a decade after the Prison Rape Elimination Act unanimously passed Congress, federal standards for implementation of the law have been finalized. Now, Gov. Rick Perry and some prison reform advocates are at odds over what those standards mean for Texas lockups and the taxpayers who pay for them.
In a March 28 letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Perry wrote that while he believed the law was well-intended, he would not certify that the 297 state prisons and local jails that are subject to PREA comply with its regulations come May 15, the certification deadline set by Department of Justice.
The new standards, he wrote, are "impossible," out of touch with the daily realities of state prisons and would require heavy financial burdens.
"Absent standards that acknowledge the operational realities in our prisons and jails, I will not sign your form and I will encourage my fellow governors to follow suit," Perry wrote.
But a spokesman for the correctional officers union said that not complying with the federal rules puts Texas at risk financially and legally.
Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the prison system has already made significant progress in meeting PREA standards.
“We are compliant with most of PREA’s standards, except for the cross-gender supervision standard,” Clark said.
That regulation, which is the primary rule to which Perry objects, would prohibit female officers from working in areas where they would see male inmates in private settings, such as the shower. About 40 percent of TDCJ correctional officers at units that house males are female, Perry wrote. PREA standards would force TDCJ to deny female officers jobs and promotion opportunities at those units.
The rules would also require a smaller ratio of correctional officers to juveniles at facilities that house offenders younger than 18. Perry said the cost of meeting that requirement would be unacceptably burdensome to small, local jails.
