Idaho, Arkansas, Alaska and Utah continue to reject the federal rules, according to the department's latest list of states that are compliant with the Prison Rape Elimination Act.
The updated list, released last week, reports that 10 states say they are fully compliant with the rules: Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington. Twenty-five more states have given the federal government formal assurances that they are actively working toward full compliance.
The federal law has several requirements that range from increased training of staff about sex-abuse policies to screening new inmates to determine if they are likely to commit sexual assault or to be assaulted. Inmates must also be able to report assaults to a rape crisis center or other organization outside the prison system, and suspected assaults must be thoroughly investigated and, when possible, perpetrators must be criminally charged.
