This Fact Sheet of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) reviews federal policy and technical assistance regarding the provision of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) that gives state and territorial governors and the mayor of the District of Columbia the option to submit to DOJ either a certification that all confinement facilities under their operational control are in full compliance with the National Standards to Prevent, Detect, and Respond to Prison Rape or to issue an assurance that they will use no less than 5 percent of certain DOJ grant funds to fully comply with PREA Standards in the future.
States and territories that do not submit a certification or an assurance are subject to a 5-percent reduction in certain DOJ funds that they would otherwise receive. The two DOJ grant programs subject to this provision are BJA’s Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP’s) Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act Formula Grant Program. To facilitate compliance, this Fact Sheet describes the certification and assurance submission process, which has an annual deadline for certification and assurance submission of October 15 of each year. Since the first PREA certification and assurance submissions in 2014, there has been an increase in the number of states and territories submitting certification of full compliance with PREA Standards. BJA’s State PREA Submission website (address provided) contains a map that reflects governors’ submissions for each audit year in a 3-year cycle and links to final PREA audit reports on confinement facilities identified by state and territorial governors. This Fact Sheet explains what to consider when making a certification decision and provides an annotated listing of resources on the PREA certification and assurance process.