National Institute of Corrections News

The National PREA Resource Center (PRC), operated by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency through a cooperative agreement with the Bureau of Justice Assistance will be offering several PREA webinars in 2014. Check the the PRC website for the most up-to-date information.  All are free to attend. From the PRC Website:

Webinars
New Inmate Education Video: Introducing a Tool for PREA Compliance
**New Date** Thursday, January 23, 2014 (2:00–3:00 p.m. EST)
Click here to learn more. Click here to register.

Upcoming Events/Conferences

• January 12–15, 2014: American Probation and Parole Association Winter Training Institute (Houston, Texas)
  
• January 31 – February 5, 2014: American Correctional Association Winter Conference (Tampa, Florida)
  
• April 23–26, 2014: North American Association of Wardens & Superintendents Training Conference (Memphis, Tennessee)

For additional resources from NIC – PREA/Offender Sexual Abuse

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) helps systems resolve the question of next steps on how to comply with Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) standards by offering a new set of e-courses designed for all disciplines of the corrections field. Because PREA touches all areas of corrections, NIC's e-courses are appropriate for corrections professionals supporting intake, security, investigation, medical treatment, first response, and compliance coordination. The PREA e-courses reflect the national standards and provide guidance on the audit process based on five topic areas. Course titles include:

• Behavioral Health Care for Sexual Assault Victims in a Confinement Setting
• PREA Coordinators' Roles and Responsibilities
• PREA Audit Process and Instrument Overview
• Investigating Sexual Abuse in a Confinement Setting
• Medical Health Care for Sexual Assault Victims in a Confinement Setting

NIC developed the PREA e-courses in response to questions from the field on the new standards.

As a pioneer on the issue, NIC addressed sexual misconduct concerns prior to PREA by providing training specific to staff sexual misconduct and then through its e-course Your Role: Responding to Sexual Abuse.

Through the new e-courses, NIC aims to help corrections professionals comply with PREA standards effectively and efficiently, ultimately leading to the overall mission of providing calmer, safer facilities and environments for inmates and officers alike.

As always, each NIC e-course is available at no charge via NIC's website. Click here to learn more about PREA or to download the e-courses.

New Resource on Pregnancy and Child-Related Legal and Policy Issues

About 200,000 women are incarcerated in the United States. An estimated 5 percent of women enter a jail or prison while pregnant. The care of incarcerated women offenders requires a facility to consider a number of medical issues unique to that population, including pregnancy and childcare challenges. A new document by the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) titled Pregnancy and Child-Related Legal and Policy Issues Concerning Justice-Involved Women can help guide correctional authorities through these legal topics.

Pregnancy and Child-Related Legal and Policy Issues Concerning Justice-Involved Women, written by Southwestern Law School Professor Myrna S. Raeder, J.D., covers a range of legal questions, from shackling women during childbirth, providing abortion access, or emphasizing the importance of prenatal care. The document is a resource for evaluating issues that may result in litigation and for developing policies and practices to improve the likelihood that women, after their release, will successfully reintegrate with their community and reunify with their children.

A growing movement seeks to prohibit the shackling of female inmates while they are in labor because of the potential threat to the mother and her child, according to the report. From a practical standpoint, physicians question whether a woman poses a flight risk or threat during labor and up to 48 hours after giving birth.

With this guide, Author Myrna Raeder continues her legacy as a champion for children and families affected by parental incarceration. She died November 16, 2013, shortly after the document's publication.

Click here to download the full document.

As A New Year Approaches

It always seems that soon after autumn, time begins to move quickly. We're at the start of a new fiscal year, in the midst of the holiday season, and right at the cusp of time when people start thinking about how well their year has gone or how they plan to improve as professionals or improve their correctional organizations in the future. For a lot of you, that means thinking about how you will implement the final rules supporting the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA). For others, it may be about finding better ways to achieve results. In either case, the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) has been and will continue to be a resource for information and assistance to help you through these fast-moving times.

To say that implementing the PREA rulings will be difficult for some is an understatement. Without proper planning, implementation will be both politically tumultuous and financially daunting for states and local agencies. We cannot mandate compliance with the standards, but we can and do provide information to systems that want to comply and ask us for help. Our webpage on PREA at www.nicic.gov/PREA highlights a number of resources. NIC also provides online training through its PREA Learning Center. Our selection of courses has expanded beyond Your Role: Responding to Sexual Abuse and now includes several others. I encourage you to learn more about them in this issue of our newsletter.

For others looking for means to achieve better results, you know that NIC has a full spectrum of resources aimed at improving corrections culture, strategies for addressing the needs of high-risk populations, and even advice for building collaboration among non-corrections partners to improve local criminal justice system outcomes.

No matter the issue, NIC is here to provide you with the information you need. Now, as 2014 approaches, I'm also pleased to mention that NIC will be celebrating its 40th year of service to the country. We're as responsive as ever to the changing tide of corrections, even amid these uncertain fiscal times for the federal government.

It is truly a privilege to be of service to the country, being involved in ensuring the public safety of our nation's local communities through improvements in its correctional systems. And as a new year quickly approaches, we'll continue to be here working diligently on your behalf, looking forward to a new year of opportunities to serve.

Robert Brown

Acting Director

National Institute of Corrections