“The purpose of this regulatory action is to set standards to prevent, detect, and respond to sexual abuse in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confinement facilities. Sexual violence, against any victim, is an assault on human dignity and an affront to American values” (p. 13100).
Provisions of these standards are broken down into parts covering “two distinct types of facilities: (1) Immigration detention facilities, which are overseen by ICE and used for longer-term detention of aliens in immigration proceedings or awaiting removal from the United States; and (2) holding facilities, which are used by ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for temporary administrative detention of individuals pending release from custody or transfer to a court, jail, prison, other agency or other unit of the facility or agency” (p. 13101).
Sections of this final rule include: abbreviations; executive summary; estimated costs and benefits; background to sexual assault during custody; and a detailed discussion of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). Standards comprising Part 115 of Title 6 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) are: definitions; Subpart A-Standards for Immigration Detention Facilities-coverage, prevention planning, responsive planning, training and education, assessment for risk of sexual victimization and abusiveness, reporting, official response following a detainee report, investigations, discipline, medical and mental care, data collection and review, audits and compliance, and additional provision in agency policies; Subpart B-Standards for DHS Holding Facilities--containing the same paragraph designations but with regulations applicable to DHS holding facilities; and Subpart C-External Auditing and Corrective Action-scope of audits, auditor qualifications, audit contents and findings, audit corrective action plan, and audit appeals.