Eliminating prison rape

Now that the Justice Department has promulgated the final standards to try to eliminate prison rape, we need to make them work. Powerful challenges lie in the realms of perception and practice.

The greatest impediment to doing away with the culture of sexual abuse in prisons is actually a belief: that it will be simple to achieve. There can be no substitute for three major steps that go beyond any written standards: well-conceived, thorough training at all levels; adequately financed renovation of old prisons and jails that lack effective supervision; and a broad-based campaign to raise public expectations to meet those of Congress when it passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act almost a decade ago.