TPI is filing complaints about PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) auditor failures to provide proper audits.
TPI has been reviewing PREA audits of TDCJ facilities for about a year at the time of this post, and the number of inaccuracies, mistakes, problems, and other issues is amazing. These reports even provide information indicating clear deficiencies, yet the auditors are not requiring corrective actions.
TPI has developed a simple auditor tool for auditors to see current information about any unit that we have in our system to help give them a heads up about any problems we see, but as far as we know, no auditor to date has used this tool.
Content warning: Some of these letters describe threats and incidents of violence that may be disturbing. We will note whether each letter is considered a low, moderate, or high risk for being disturbing. We consider this letter to be low risk.
The following letter report is TPI’s report of deficiencies we were able to identify with this audit. Allred Unit is a facility that TPI feels is one of the worst in the entire Texas prison system, and the problems with this audit do nothing to alleviate that assessment. The audit report itself, which TPI feels should be considered as deficient for documenting “compliance” with the PREA standards, can be accessed here. Some noteworthy points include:
- The auditor made false statements that only “males” are housed at Allred Unit.
- The auditor defined no corrective actions, in spite of evidence of need for corrective actions.
- Audit entries 38 and 39: The auditor appears to have failed to conduct adequate due diligence to determine the veracity of the claims by Allred Unit staff about the absence of documented persons with physical, cognitive, or functional disabilities.
- Audit entry 45: The auditor makes contradictory statements that either 60 or 64 persons alleged sexual abuse at Allred Unit.
- Audit entry 47: The auditor claims that both 0 and 1 person had been placed in segregated housing for risk of sexual victimization, both of which are inaccurate.
- Audit entry 48: The auditor documents that Allred Unit does not distinguish between sexual orientation and gender identity, which calls into question how Allred Unit staff can meet obligations for properly screening individuals.
- PREA § 115.15: The auditor failed to properly assess compliance with cross-gender viewing and searches.
- PREA § 115.16: Apparent manipulation of data concerning persons with physical, psychiatric, and intellectual disabilities.
- PREA § 115.22: The auditor reports that 2 out of 5 interviewees did not understand this standard, but claims the facility is in compliance.
- PREA § 115.31: Statements by the auditor indicate training ineffectiveness.
- PREA § 115.33: Statements by the auditor indicate a number of problems with training of incarcerated persons about the PREA standards.
- PREA § 115.34: Staff training in investigations appear to be lacking.
- PREA § 115.41: Auditor data indicates problems with screening persons for risk of sexual violence.
- PREA § 115.42: Auditor statements indicate questionable use of data concerning LGBTI persons housed at Allred Unit, and apparent dismissal of interviewee information that Allred Unit does not offer opportunities for transgender persons to shower separate, the assessment in this audit appears dubious.
- PREA § 115.43: Auditor information shows clear misunderstanding of how TDCJ and Allred Unit implements PREA protective custody.
- PREA § 115.52: Questionable and conflicting data indicates assessment problems related to investigations.
- PREA § 115.53: Auditor states that one-third of the incarcerated persons interviewed about their reports of sexual abuse stated they did not receive information required by this standard, which is not compliant with this standard.
- PREA § 115.64: Auditor statements indicate problems with first responder duties or with the assessment of those duties during the audit.
- PREA § 115.67: Auditor states that 2 out of 5 persons interviewed did not feel protection from retaliation, but the auditor dismissed those concerns.
- PREA § 115.72: Extremely low rates of substantiation indicate a preponderance of evidence standard is not being used, as required.
- PREA § 115.73: Auditor states at least 1 out of 6, possibly 2 out of 6, persons interviewed did not receive reports about investigation outcomes, which is not complaint with the standard.
- PREA § 115.82: Auditor states 1 of 6 persons reporting sexual abuse was not seen by medical or mental health staff and did not receive prophylaxis information, which may not be compliant with the standard.
- PREA § 115.83: Auditor reports 1 of 6 persons did not recall being offered follow-up or ongoing medical and mental health care, which is not compliant with the standard.
- PREA § 115.401: The auditor appears to have not conducted due diligence in contacting sufficient community advocates with information about Allred Unit.
- PREA §§ 115.401 and 115.402: The auditor appears to have multiple conflicts of interest, as discussed in the “auditor qualification issues” section.