I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1707
To provide for the analysis of the incidence and effects of prison rape 
in Federal, State, and local institutions and to provide information, 
resources, recommendations, and funding to protect individuals from 
prison rape. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 9, 2003
Mr. WOLF (for himself and Mr. SCOTT of Virginia) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To provide for the analysis of the incidence and effects 
of prison rape in Federal, State, and local institutions 
and to provide information, resources, recommendations, 
and funding to protect individuals from prison rape.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Prison Rape Reduction Act of 2003’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 
this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings. 
Sec. 3. Purposes. 
Sec. 4. National prison rape statistics, data, and research. 
Sec. 5. Prison rape prevention and prosecution. 
Sec. 6. Prison rape prevention and prosecution grants. 
Sec. 7. National Prison Rape Reduction Commission. 
Sec. 8. Adoption and effect of national standards. 
Sec. 9. Model standards for acute post-trauma treatment. 
Sec. 10. Requirement that accreditation organizations adopt accreditation 
standards. 
Sec. 11. Designation of grant programs for funding increases; adjustments to 
increases. 
Sec. 12. Definitions.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) 2,100,146 persons were incarcerated in the 
United States at the end of 2001: 1,324,465 in Fed-
eral and State Prisons and 631,240 in county and 
local jails. In 1999, there were more than 
10,000,000 separate admissions to and discharges 
from prisons and jails. 
(2) Insufficient research has been conducted 
and insufficient data reported on the extent of pris-
on rape. However, experts have conservatively esti-
mated that at least 13 percent of the inmates in the 
United States have been sexually assaulted in pris-
on. Many inmates have suffered repeated assaults. 
Under this estimate, nearly 200,000 inmates now in-
carcerated 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.
(3) Inmates with mental illness are at increased 
risk of sexual victimization. America’s jails and pris-
ons house more mentally ill individuals than all of 
the Nation’s psychiatric hospitals combined. As 
many as 16 percent of inmates in state prisons and 
jails, and 7 percent of Federal inmates, suffer from 
mental illness. 
(4) Young 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. 
(5) Most prison staff are not adequately trained 
or prepared to prevent, report, or treat inmate sex-
ual assaults. 
(6) Prison rape often goes unreported, and in-
mate victims often receive inadequate treatment for 
the severe physical and psychological effects of sex-
ual assault—if they receive treatment at all. 
(7) HIV and AIDS are major public health 
problems within America’s correctional facilities. In 
2000, 25,088 inmates in Federal and State prisons 
were known to be infected with HIV/AIDS. In 2000, 
HIV/AIDS accounted for more than 6 percent of all 
deaths in Federal and State prisons. Infection rates
for other sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, 
and hepatitis B and C are also far greater for pris-
oners than for the American population as a whole. 
Prison rape undermines the public health by contrib-
uting to the spread of these diseases, and often giv-
ing a potential death sentence to its victims. 
(8) Prison rape endangers the public safety by 
making brutalized inmates more likely to commit 
crimes when they are released—as 600,000 inmates 
are each year. 
(9) The frequently interracial character of pris-
on sexual assaults significantly exacerbates inter-
racial tensions, both within prison and, upon release 
of perpetrators and victims from prison, in the com-
munity at large. 
(10) Prison rape increases the level of homi-
cides and other violence against inmates and staff, 
and the risk of insurrections and riots. 
(11) Victims of prison rape suffer severe phys-
ical and psychological effects that hinder their ability 
to integrate into the community and maintain stable 
employment upon their release from prison. They
are thus more likely to become homeless and/or re-
quire government assistance.
(12) Members of the public and government of-
ficials are largely unaware of the epidemic character 
of prison rape and the day-to-day horror experienced 
by victimized inmates. 
(13) The high incidence of sexual assault within 
prisons involves actual and potential violations of the 
United States Constitution. In Farmer v. Brennan, 
511 U.S. 825 (1994), the Supreme Court ruled that 
deliberate indifference to the substantial risk of sex-
ual assault violates prisoners’ rights under the Cruel 
and Unusual Punishments Clause of the Eighth 
Amendment. The Eighth Amendment rights of State 
and local prisoners are protected through the Due 
Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Pur-
suant to Congress’s power under Section Five of the 
Fourteenth Amendment, Congress may take action 
to enforce those rights in States where officials have 
demonstrated such indifference. States in which the 
incidence of prison rape exceeds the median by 30 
percent whose officials refuse to explain their poli-
cies and practices regarding sexual assault and 
States that do not adopt carefully selected grant 
performance standards that do not generate signifi-
cant additional expenditures demonstrate such indif-
ference. Therefore, such States are not entitled to 
the same level of Federal benefits as other States. 
(14) The high incidence of prison rape under-
mines the effectiveness and efficiency of United 
States Government expenditures through grant pro-
grams such as those dealing with health care; men-
tal health care; disease prevention; crime prevention, 
investigation, and prosecution; prison construction, 
maintenance, and operation; race relations; poverty; 
unemployment and homelessness. The effectiveness 
and efficiency of these Federally funded grant pro-
grams are compromised by officials’ failure to adopt 
policies and procedure that reduce the incidence of 
prison rape in that the high incidence of prison 
rape—
(A) increases the costs incurred by Fed-
eral, State, and local jurisdictions to administer 
their prison systems; 
(B) increases the levels of violence, di-
rected at inmates and at staff, within prisons; 
(C) increases health care expenditures, 
both inside and outside of prison systems, and 
reduces the effectiveness of disease prevention 
programs by substantially increasing the inci-
dence and spread of HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis, 
hepatitis B and C, and other diseases; 
(D) increases mental health care expendi-
tures, both inside and outside of prison sys-
tems, by substantially increasing the rate of 
post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, sui-
cide, and the exacerbation of existing mental ill-
nesses among current and former inmates; 
(E) increases the risks of recidivism, civil 
strife, and violent crime by individuals who have 
been brutalized by prison rape; and 
(F) increases the level of interracial ten-
sions and strife within prisons and, upon re-
lease of perpetrators and victims, in the com-
munity at large. 
(15) The high incidence of prison rape has a 
significant effect on interstate commerce because it 
increases substantially—
(A) the costs incurred by Federal, State, 
and local jurisdictions to administer their pris-
on systems; 
(B) the incidence and spread of HIV, 
AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, and 
other diseases, contributing to increased health
and medical expenditures throughout the Na-
tion; 
(C) the rate of post-traumatic stress dis-
order, depression, suicide, and the exacerbation 
of existing mental illnesses among current and 
former inmates, contributing to increased 
health and medical expenditures throughout the 
Nation; and 
(D) the risk of recidivism, civil strife, and 
violent crime by individuals who have been bru-
talized by prison rape. 
SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of this Act are to—
(1) establish a zero-tolerance standard for the 
incidence of prison rape in prisons in the United 
States; 
(2) make the prevention of prison rape a top 
priority in each prison system; 
(3) develop and implement national standards 
for the detection, prevention, reduction, and punish-
ment of prison rape; 
(4) increase the available data and information 
on the incidence of prison rape, consequently im-
proving the management and administration of cor-
rectional facilities;
(5) standardize the definitions used for col-
lecting data on the incidence of prison rape; 
(6) increase the accountability of prison officials 
who fail to detect, prevent, reduce, and punish pris-
on rape. 
(7) protect the Eighth Amendment rights of 
Federal, State, and local prisoners; 
(8) increase the efficiency and effectiveness of 
Federal expenditures through grant programs such 
as those dealing with health care; mental health 
care; disease prevention; crime prevention, investiga-
tion, and prosecution; prison construction, mainte-
nance, and operation; race relations; poverty; unem-
ployment; and homelessness; and 
(9) reduce the costs that prison rape imposes 
on interstate commerce. 
SEC. 4. NATIONAL PRISON RAPE STATISTICS, DATA, AND 
RESEARCH. 
(a) ANNUAL
COMPREHENSIVE
STATISTICAL
RE-
VIEW.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Bureau of Justice Sta-
tistics of the Department of Justice (in this section 
referred to as the ‘‘Bureau’’) shall carry out, for 
each calendar year, a comprehensive statistical re-
view and analysis of the incidence and effects of