Senate to Hold Hearing on Sexual Abuse in Detention
- September 24, 2024
Just Detention International’s Julie Abbate will join corrections and policy experts and survivors of sexual abuse in detention in testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism
Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., September 24, 2024 — Tomorrow a Senate subcommittee will hold Congress’s first hearing focussing on sexual abuse in prisons and youth detention systems since the passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003. A landmark piece of bipartisan legislation, PREA led to a sea change in how the nation addresses sexual abuse behind bars. Drawing on expert testimony from advocates, corrections officials, and survivors of sexual abuse in detention, tomorrow’s hearing will examine what work remains to be done to reach PREA’s goal of ending this crisis, once and for all. The hearing comes on the same day that Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove and Congressman Kelly Armstrong are expected to introduce the House companion of legislation to increase access to rape crisis services in U.S. prisons and jails, the Sexual Abuse Services in Detention Act.
Who: Senate Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Terrorism
What: Hearing on “Sexual Assault in U.S. Prisons Two Decades After the Prison Rape Elimination Act”
When: Wednesday, September 25, 2024 @ 2 p.m. (ET); streaming link here
Where: Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 226
Witnesses:
– Julie Abbate, National Advocacy Director, Just Detention International
– Bonnie Hernandez, Lee’s Summit, MO
– Kenneth James, Director of Settlement Compliance, South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice
– Breane Wingfield, Dallas, TX
– Brandy Moore White, National President, Council of Prison Locals
###
Just Detention International is a health and human rights organization that seeks to end sexual abuse in all forms of detention.