The Pennington County Jail has a zero-tolerance for sexual abuse. The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 is a federal law that seeks to eliminate sexual assaults and sexual misconduct.

 

 

 The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was passed in 2003 with unanimous support from both parties in Congress. The purpose of the act was to “provide for the analysis of the incidence and effects of prison rape in Federal, State and local institutions and to provide information, resources, recommendations and funding to protect individuals from prison rape. (Prison Rape Elimination Act, 2003.) In addition to creating a mandate for significant research from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and through the National Institute of Justice, funding through the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the National Institute of Corrections supported major efforts in many state correctional, juvenile detention, community corrections and jail systems.

The act also created the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission and charged it with developing draft standards for the elimination of prison rape. Those standards were published in June 2009, and were turned over to the Department of Justice for review and passage as a final rule. That final rule became effective August 20, 2012.
 
In 2010, the Bureau of Justice Assistance funded the National PREA Resource Center to continue to provide federally funded training and technical assistance to states and localities, as well as to serve as a single-stop resource for leading research and tools for all those in the field working to come into compliance with the federal standards.

The Pennington County Jail has a zero tolerance policy toward all forms of sexual abuse and sexual harassment in our facility, under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) 2003. We will enforce all federal, state and local laws pertaining to inmate sexual misconduct. All reports will be fully investigated, which includes both allegations of sexual abuse and sexual harassment, by the Pennington County Jail and the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office investigative Division. 

The Pennington County Jail’s continued commitment to maintain an organizational culture of zero-tolerance toward all forms of sexual abuse and harassment through annual staff training, contractor and volunteer training, notification to all professional visitors and inmate education is supported by comparing the final statistics for the previous years.   The Pennington County Jail redacts all personal identifies when reporting annual statistics. 

Inmates who are currently being sexually assaulted are encouraged to talk to a staff member. This will allow for the quickest response.

 

If you suspect that an inmate is the victim of sexual assault/harassment, it can be reported in 1 of the following ways:

• Contact the Pennington County Jail Administrator during regular business hours at 218-416-7095. 

• Call the Pennington County Jail and request to speak with a Jail Sergeant to make a report at 218-416-7098. 

• Call Sexual Assault Services at 218-681-0881 with the option to remain anonymous. 

Inmate on Imate Complaint	Sexual Abuse	Sexual Harassment
Unfounded Allegations	0	0
Unsubstantiated Allegations	0	0
Substantiated Allegations	0	0