New Hope for Victims of Prison Sexual Assault

Senate Bill 1435, the “Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003,” was introduced into the Senate on July 21, 2003, and in less than a week passed both the Senate and House by unanimous consent. The Bill was presented to President Bush on September 2, 2003, and he signed it two days later on September 4, 2003. The stated purposes of the Act are far-reaching and ambitious:establish a zero-tolerance standard for the incidence of prison rape in prisons in the United States;make the prevention of prison rape a top priority in each prison system;develop and implement national standards For the detection, prevention, reduction, and punishment of prison rape;increase the available data and information on the incidence of prison rape, consequently improving the management and administration of correctional facilities;standardize the definitions used for collecting data on the incidence of prison rape