NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULEMAKING DOCKET NO. OAG

- 131

AG ORDER NO. 3244

- 2011; RIN 1105

- AB34 76 FR 6248 (FEB. 3, 2011) DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: NATIONAL STANDARDS TO PREVENT,

DETECT, AND RESPOND TO PRISON RAPE

ME ETING SUMMARY

RE: MEETING WITH FORMER MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL PRISON RAPE ELIMINATION COMMISSION (NPREC)

DATE/TIME OF MEETING: MARCH 31, 2011 1 1 : 3 0 A.M.

- 12: 3 0 P.M.

PLACE OF MEETING: DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, RFK BUILDING

ATTENDEES:

FROM THE FORMER NPREC

John A. Kaneb, former c ommissioner

FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Eric R. Columbus, Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General Frank Amanat, Senior Counsel, Office of Legal Policy Joshua Delaney

, Senior Trial Attorney, Special Litigation Section, Civil Rights
Division

ALSO PRESENT:
Tara Graham

, Senior Program Associate, Vera Institute of Justice

SUMMARY OF MEETING:

In mid

- March 2011, a number of t he former NPREC commissioners requested via

email a follow

- up to the meeting that took place on February 10, 2 011, to better understand how the Department arrived at its proposed standards and cost conclusions,

and to discuss the c ommissioners’ reactions to and comments on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). The only former commissioner who was ultimately able to participate in the meeting at the scheduled time was Mr. Kaneb.

Mr. Kaneb provided the Department representatives with copies of a memorandum which had been sent to the Department v ia email on March 21, 2011, on
behalf of the former members of the NPREC. The memorandum , a copy of which is attached, submitted seven questions and requests for information . Mr. Kaneb asked the DOJ representatives whether responses to these questions and requests for informationwould be forthcoming . The Department representatives stated that information

responsive to General Question 3 was posted on the public docket for the rulemaking and referred to the Initial Regulatory Impact Analysis with regard to General Question 2. Department representatives declined to respond to the remaining questions

.

Mr. Kaneb stated that the former c ommission ers had concerns regarding the proposed rule ’s standards relating to cross

- gender patdowns, exhaustion of adminis trative remedies, full

- time vs. part

- time status of PREA coordinators, and audits. In addition

, Mr. Kaneb stated that the former c ommission ers obj ected to the exclusion of immigration detention facilities from the scope of the proposed rule.

Mr. Kaneb and the Department also discussed the Department’s estimates of the
costs of the NPREC’s proposed standards , and the source of the differences between

those estimates and the cost estimates for the standards in the Department’s proposed

rule

.

Mr. Kaneb concluded by emphasizing that tolerance of sex ual abuse in detention settings is incompatible with American values and by urging the Department to promulgate strong and effective standards. The Department encouraged Mr. Kaneb and

the other former commissioner s to lay out the full extent of their concerns in their formal comments, and observed that the Department would address those and other comments, as appropriate and war r anted, in the preamble to the final rule

.