PREA and male inmates housed in female facilities.

In 2010 the Prison Rape Elimination Act  (PREA) was passed. All Corrections Officers had to go through initial training and then a few hours a year on PREA since about keeping inmates safe. MN DOC standards says male and female inmates are to be housed out of sight and sound of each other.

Now along comes the policy of housing male (trans) inmates with women. This creates an unsafe environment for female inmates and a legal nightmare for Corrections Officers. If you keep female inmates safe you may be accused of violating Trans rights, if you don't you've violated PREA with very severe penalties.

The Iowa Standard has a good article about this current state of affairs in Minnesota.

Report: Female Inmates 'Traumatized' In Wake of Walz's Trans Prison Policy 

Corrections News & Views, January 2014 Edition

PREA Update

On Friday January 10th we met with Sheriff's Administration to discuss the implementation of the PREA background checks on MNPEA members. This is a new condition of employment and it should be negotiated and we believe either contract language or a Letter of Understanding needs to be drafted to establish what can and can't be done under the PREA background investigations.

We made it clear that we were going to cooperate with the new law, but were concerned about the Sheriff's Office casting a "wide net." Our goal is to make sure the law is applied to our members as written, no less and certainly no more. After all, PREA backgrounds are available to future employers.

We went over the questions the Sheriff's Office wants to ask and there were a couple we believed were not required by the PREA. We made recommendations to the administration.

We have concerns over any unreported minor  infractions that may be found during a background investigation. The purpose of the PREA is to make sure you aren't a sex offender working in corrections, and you shouldn't be if you are. The Sheriff's Administration says if found, minor infractions will be turned over to I.A. We view it as a search warrant looking for a specific item not a catch all.

There is concern many of you have  about being fingerprinted again. The PREA does not require it as part of the background check. The Sheriff's Office believes it is necessary. Our position is that they already have them. 

We have concerns over where those fingerprints will end up. After all the HCSO has a poor track record of keeping confidential information confidential. Like the 3 times they violated our Garrity Rights and home addresses ending up with AFSCME. Let's not forget the Kingfish system that allows the Sheriff's Office to track our cell phones. As I said, we will comply with the law, but do not want a wide net cast beyond what the law requires.

An interesting side-note is that every time we go to arbitration our employer, the County makes it clear that there are three corrections groups in the County. The Workhouse, the Juvenile Center and us at the jail. They ALWAYS say we are the same and use that argument to keep our pay equal, even though we have more inmates, more training and higher standards (ACA). Well guess what? The Workhouse and Juvenile Center CO's aren't getting fingerprinted as part of their PREA background. Why should we be held to a higher standard? 

The Lieutenants at the meeting are bringing our concerns to the Sheriff. We will wait and see how it goes.