Gov. Abbott Takes Steps To Reduce Rape In Texas Prisons
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"Texas has taken significant steps to eliminate prison rape;" these are the words Governor Abbott wrote in a compliance letter to U.S. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch.
Abbott is directing the State to abide by national standards to prevent, detect and respond to prison rape. This is a sharp dissent from the policy of Governor Perry. Just last year he denounced the national rape standards as counterproductive and a costly regulatory mess.
According to Jim Harrington, the Director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, Governor Perry's refusal to comply with national rape elimination standards was very callous. "Texas has five of the ten facilities with the highest rates of sexual assault in the country."
A 2008 study from the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that in those five prisons, between 9 percent and 16 percent of all inmates report incidents of rape by fellow prisoners and prison staff.
The State's compliance requires federal and state prisons and jails to implement best practices and national standards or face penalties. Last year Texas lost $800,000 in Federal grants due to non-compliance.
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