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An ordinance of the Council of the County of Allegheny, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending and supplementing Division 2 of the Allegheny County Code of Ordinances, Chapter 205, entitled “Allegheny County Jail,” through the creation of a new Article III, entitled “Jail Rape Elimination,” in order to codify existing provisions of Federal law at the County level.
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WHEREAS, the United States Congress enacted and then-President George W. Bush signed the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA) on September 4th of that year; and
WHEREAS, the provisions of PREA were designed to prioritize the elimination of sexual assaults among incarcerated individuals throughout the country’s prison system; and
WHEREAS, with this end in mind, PREA’s provisions were written specifically to aid in detection, prevention, and punishment for sexual abuse in prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities, with final standards becoming effective on August 20, 2012.; and
WHEREAS, among numerous stated reasonings for enacting for PREA, Congress specifically noted that (1) “experts have conservatively estimated that at least 13 percent of the inmates in the United States have been sexually assaulted in prison. Many inmates have suffered repeated assaults. Under this estimate, nearly 200,000 inmates now incarcerated have been or will be the victims of prison rape. The total number of inmates who have been sexually assaulted in the past 20 years likely exceeds 1,000,000,” (2) “[i]nmates with mental illness are at increased risk of sexual victimization. America's jails and prisons house more mentally ill individuals than all of the Nation's psychiatric hospitals combined,” (3) “[y]oung first-time offenders are at increased risk of sexual victimization. Juveniles are 5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted in adult rather than juvenile facilities-often within the first 48 hours of incarceration,” (4) “[m]ost prison staff are not adequately trained or prepared to prevent, report, or ...
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