A Congressional commission plans to issue recommendations on Tuesday for standards to reduce sexual assaults in the nation’s jails and prisons.
The commission cited an estimate by the Bureau of Justice Statistics that 60,500 state and federal prisoners were sexually assaulted in 2007.
Congress authorized the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission to conduct the study and to issue binding standards for corrections agencies that will have the force of law. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. will have one year to codify anti-sexual assault procedures, and state governors will have an additional year to signal their compliance with those standards or risk losing up to 5 percent of federal financing for corrections.
