- Former Prison Employees Blow Whistle on Sexual Abuse in Ohio
- Federal Legislation Update: Implementation Starts
- Roderick Johnson Joins SPR Advisory Board
- The Post-PREA Political Landscape: New Opportunities for SPR
Former Prison Employees Blow Whistle on Sexual
Abuse in Ohio 
Stop Prisoner Rape has released an in-depth report on the sexual abuse of female inmates in the Ohio Reformatory for Women (ORW).
The report details allegations from three whistleblowers, former ORW employees, who found that inmates faced a climate of frequent sexual abuse and were routinely placed in segregation for reporting it.
The December report, along with SPR's testimony before Ohio's Correctional Institution Inspection Committee, received considerable press attention, including coverage from several Ohio television stations and newspapers. More importantly, it led state officials to launch an inquiry into conditions at ORW, with an official hearing scheduled for March 17. SPR is monitoring the follow-up and will advocate for substantive changes to be made to protect the welfare of the ORW inmates.
(In the photo: Senator Robert Hagan of Ohio speaks at the press conference for the release of SPR's report. Photo courtesy Office of Democratic Communications, Ohio Statehouse.)
Read the full report (in pdf format).Federal Legislation Update: Implementation Starts
Preliminary work has begun on the implementation of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), which was signed into law in September. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has held a pair of conferences in Washington D.C. to discuss plans for research on the issue.
BJS announced that computer assisted self-interview (CASI) technology is being tested for use in the studies of prisoner rape. The CASI system will allow inmates to use a self-guided audio interview and touch-screen computer to respond to researchers' questions.
SPR Executive Director Lara Stemple attended the BJS meetings in December and January, urging researchers to be sensitive to the concerns of survivors. Fear of retaliation, shame, stigma, and language and literacy barriers, she noted, could all be obstacles to accurately assessing inmates' experiences with abuse.
SPR will continue to closely monitor all stages of the implementation process, pushing the government toward a meaningful realization of the PREA's goals.
The final text of the PREA is available here.
Roderick Johnson Joins SPR Advisory Board
SPR is pleased to announce that Texas survivor Roderick Johnson has joined its Board of Advisors.
Johnson was released in December from Allred state prison in Texas, where he was raped and forcibly prostituted by prison gangs while behind bars. Despite seven requests to be placed in protective custody, Johnson was given no protection by prison officials. The ACLU filed a civil lawsuit on Johnson's behalf against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a case that is still pending.
Since his release, Johnson has bravely spoken out to several media outlets about his experiences behind bars, and his case is extensively discussed in Reuters journalist Alan Elsner's forthcoming book "Gates of Injustice: The Crisis in America's Prisons." He has also agreed to appear in planned SPR public service print advertisements reaching out to survivors.
As a gay man, Johnson's ordeal is unfortunately emblematic of the hazards faced by LGBT inmates behind bars. The institutional indifference he faced, far from being unusual, is still a reality for many LGBT prisoners.
(In the photo: Texas survivor and new SPR Advisory Board member Roderick Johnson in his Navy portrait, taken before he went to prison. Photo courtesy of ACLU.)
The Post-PREA Political Landscape: New Opportunities
for SPR
When the Prison Rape Elimination Act was signed last September, it did not mean SPR's work was finished. In fact, the success of the bill means that new opportunities are available for SPR to create concrete policy change on the state and national level.
At a January strategic planning meeting in Los Angeles, SPR's staff and board members reviewed some of the most exciting avenues for SPR to promote reform.
Monitoring progress on the federal level is an important role for SPR, but the bill's passage has also prompted some states to begin considering prisoner rape for the first time. In step with this change, SPR has begun working with states on developing model protocols for creating safer conditions behind bars.
The increased media interest in prisoner rape has also encouraged SPR to plan individual advocacy campaigns (similar to those used successfully by Amnesty International) as a powerful method for mobilizing supporters around specific instances of abuse or sexual misconduct.
Finally, SPR is working to become more of a resource for corrections professionals and judges who, since the PREA's passage, are concerned with creating safer, more humane conditions behind bars. Training those who work with inmates can help bridge the gap between the intellectual objectives of laws like the PREA and the often gritty reality of day-to-day life in jails, prisons, and detention facilities.
(In the photo: SPR's staff and Board of Directors at the group's strategic planning meeting in Los Angeles.)
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