PREA Mandates in Juvenile Justice Facilities: Protecting the Health and Wellness of our Youngest Inmates (2015)

In the area of Juvenile Corrections, we might take this opportunity to revisit a topic I wrote about in February, “Incarcerated Youth at Risk: Is Your Facility Doing Enough to Avoid Liability?” Ultimately, a correctional facility has an ongoing obligation to safeguard the health and wellbeing of its minor inmates. In February, I asked whether your institution was doing enough to avoid liability in this area. This month, with that overarching question in mind, we consider whether your institution is compliant with the mandates of PREA? Juvenile inmates are, indeed, a “special” population, and as such, are particularly vulnerable to victimization while in custody, both from inmate-on inmate conduct, as well as staff misconduct. Ongoing attention to the federal mandates of PREA goes a long way toward ensuring that a juvenile inmate’s time in custody will be devoid of the types of sexual assault issues that have now been recognized and documented in our juvenile correctional facilities around the country. With national standards now established, those institutions choosing, or simply unable, to comply with these mandates, situate themselves as particularly vulnerable, “easy targets” for liability."