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Promise Amid Peril: Prea's Efforts To Regulate An End To Prison Rape, Brenda V. Smith Jan 2020

Promise Amid Peril: Prea's Efforts To Regulate An End To Prison Rape, Brenda V. Smith

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

This Article discusses the modest aspirations of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (“PREA”) that passed unanimously in the United States Congress in 2003. The Article posits that PREA created opportunities for holding correctional authorities accountable by creating a baseline for safety and setting more transparent expectations for agencies’ practices for protecting prisoners from sexual abuse. Additionally, the Article posits that PREA enhanced the evolving standards of decency for the Eighth Amendment and articulated clear expectations of correctional authorities to provide sexual safety for people in custody.


Boys, Rape And Masculinity: Reclaiming Boys' Narratives Of Sexual Violence In Custody, Brenda V. Smith Jun 2015

Boys, Rape And Masculinity: Reclaiming Boys' Narratives Of Sexual Violence In Custody, Brenda V. Smith

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

This article examines a little studied area at the intersections of masculinity, feminist studies, and criminal justice – sexual abuse of boys in custody by female staff. Professor Smith will outline the scope of the problem and discusses competing narratives that attempt to explain the phenomena: (1) female staff as “mother, sister, friend”; (2) adolescent development theory; (3) complex early childhood trauma; and (4) female authority and power. There is a gap in both masculinity and feminist theory in analyzing sexual aggression and power by women over boys. The talk will colclude with policy and practice prescription and recommendations for …


After Dothard: Female Correctional Workers And The Challenge To Employment Law, Brenda V. Smith, Melisa C. Loomis Jan 2013

After Dothard: Female Correctional Workers And The Challenge To Employment Law, Brenda V. Smith, Melisa C. Loomis

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

This article examines a profession where women have made great strides—corrections. Using an equality framework, corrections and other non-traditional professions were the first targets of the feminist movement in the 1970s. By and large, feminists were successful in creating greater porosity for women in law enforcement, emergency services, corrections, and the military. While women have entered these traditionally masculine spaces, they still suffer from an achievement gap. They are still underrepresented in leadership positions and marginalized in these settings; are still the targets of discrimination based on race, gender, and perceived sexual orientation; and are less likely than men to …


Uncomfortable Places, Close Spaces: Theorizing Female Correctional Officers’ Sexual Interactions With Men And Boys In Custody, Brenda V. Smith Jan 2012

Uncomfortable Places, Close Spaces: Theorizing Female Correctional Officers’ Sexual Interactions With Men And Boys In Custody, Brenda V. Smith

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

This Article examines female-perpetrated sexual abuse in custodial settings and its place at the intersection of race, class, and gender in order to disentangle complex and overlapping narratives of abuse, sex, desire, and transgression. Ultimately, this Article confronts our discomfort with and reluctance to acknowledge the fact that women sexually abuse men and boys in custody, and it offers possible explanations for these behaviors.


Juveniles Convicted As Adults: An Annotated Bibliography Of Current Research., Brenda V. Smith, Jaime Yarussi Jan 2012

Juveniles Convicted As Adults: An Annotated Bibliography Of Current Research., Brenda V. Smith, Jaime Yarussi

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

This publication compiles case law, new stories, reports and helpful sites on the issue of juveniles convicted as adults (as of 2012).


Prosecuting Sexual Violence In Correctional Settings: Examining Prosecutors’ Perceptions, Brenda V. Smith, Jaime Yarussi Apr 2008

Prosecuting Sexual Violence In Correctional Settings: Examining Prosecutors’ Perceptions, Brenda V. Smith, Jaime Yarussi

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA) is the first piece of federal legislation that expressly and exclusively addresses sexual abuse of persons in custody. Notwithstanding passage of the Act, there is a clear belief, echoed by correctional leaders, that prosecutors are reluctant at best, and unwilling at worst, to prosecute cases of sexual violence in correctional settings. In order to gather information on the prosecutor interest in and capacity to prosecute these cases, the National Institute of Corrections Project on Addressing Prison Rape at the Washington College of Law (the NIC/WCL Project) collected data from state and federal …


The Prison Rape Elimination Act: Implementation And Unresolved Issues, Brenda V. Smith Apr 2008

The Prison Rape Elimination Act: Implementation And Unresolved Issues, Brenda V. Smith

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

This article aims to provide a brief background of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) and the important political forces that shaped its passing, the current status on implementation of the Act, including progress made with each of the tools, and a prediction about issues that will arise in the enactment and implementation of the standards required by PREA.


The Violence Against Women Act: Denying Needed Resources Based On Criminal History, Jaime M. Yarussi Jan 2008

The Violence Against Women Act: Denying Needed Resources Based On Criminal History, Jaime M. Yarussi

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

This article aims to discuss the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) in regards to funding for mental health treatment and crisis servic- es for incarcerated survivors and victims of sexual violence. It will begin by illustrating the need for services because of inmates’ likely history of victimization and draws conclusions regarding the impact that denying VAWA/ VOCA resources may have on the recovery of incarcerated victims.


Reforming, Reclaiming Or Reframing Womanhood: Reflections On Advocacy For Women In Custody, Brenda V. Smith Oct 2007

Reforming, Reclaiming Or Reframing Womanhood: Reflections On Advocacy For Women In Custody, Brenda V. Smith

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

Brenda V. Smith was asked to present one of the keynote addresses for the symposium, Behind Bars: The Impact of Incarceration on Women and Their Families, sponsored by the Women's Rights Law Reporter at Rutgers University School of Law in Newark. She then wrote the introductory essay for the publication which arose from that symposium. This essay addresses why it is imperative to reclaim the discourse about women in prison and discusses how the other papers that appear in this issue aid in that project.


Anti-Fraternization Policies In Community Corrections: A Tool To Address Staff Sexual Misconduct In Community Correction Agencies, Brenda V. Smith, Nairi M. Simonian Jan 2007

Anti-Fraternization Policies In Community Corrections: A Tool To Address Staff Sexual Misconduct In Community Correction Agencies, Brenda V. Smith, Nairi M. Simonian

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

This article outlines the different constitutional standards that courts apply when analyzing agency restrictions on relationships between ex-offenders and community corrections staff. The article concludes with recommendations about how agencies might develop constitutional policies in this area.


Analyzing Prison Sex: Reconciling Self Expression With Safety, Brenda V. Smith Jan 2006

Analyzing Prison Sex: Reconciling Self Expression With Safety, Brenda V. Smith

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

This article examines the complexity of prison sex and the challenges that it raises in the context of recently enacted United States legislation, specifically the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). It begins by identifying a range of prisoner interests in enhanced sexual expression. These interests are described below in an attempt to disentangle prisoners’ rights in sexual expression from states’ legitimate interests in regulating that expression. This article also directs policymakers and decision makers to mine international documents and human rights norms that recognize the necessity of punishment and at the same time outline a standard for the safety of …


Integrity In Jail Operations: Addressing Employee/Inmate Relationships, Brenda V. Smith, Nairi M. Simonian Jan 2006

Integrity In Jail Operations: Addressing Employee/Inmate Relationships, Brenda V. Smith, Nairi M. Simonian

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

Jails often struggle with how to ensure the integrity of operations by establishing policies aimed at governing employee relationships with individuals who are under the supervision of a criminal justice agency. Agencies need to balance their legitimate interests with employees’ basic rights to associate. This article discusses case law around this issue and makes recommendations about how to construct agency policies in this area.


Sexual Abuse Of Women In Prison: A Modern Corollary Of Slavery, Brenda V. Smith Jan 2006

Sexual Abuse Of Women In Prison: A Modern Corollary Of Slavery, Brenda V. Smith

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

This paper addresses the sexual abuse of women in custody as a more contemporary manifestation of slavery and discusses the congruencies and the differences that exist between the sexual abuse of women in custody and slavery. The paper charts the history of the parallel abolition and prison reform movements and examines their divergent paths arguing that the women's movement abandonment of prison advocacy has harmed the women in prison movement. The article concludes that the embrace of human rights norms has assisted in providing new avenues for redressing the sexual abuse of women in custody.


Rethinking Prison Sex: Self -Expression And Safety, Brenda V. Smith Jan 2006

Rethinking Prison Sex: Self -Expression And Safety, Brenda V. Smith

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

This article analyzes legislation and policies that limit prisoners' sexual expression and autonomy. The article juxtaposes prisoners interest in sexual expression against the interests of the state in regulating sex by and between prisoners. The article concludes that the state has an interest in regulating sex between inmates and staff and in regulating coerced or forced sex between inmates. In other instances prisons could accommodate prisoners' interest in sexual expression and achieve important goals such as better decisionmaking; improved relations with family and partners to aid community reentry; reduction of prison rape; and inmate management.


Watching You, Watching Me, Brenda V. Smith Jan 2003

Watching You, Watching Me, Brenda V. Smith

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

This article addresses these arguments and ultimately concludes that same-sex supervision should be adopted in U.S. prisons in supervising both male and female prisoners. First, while same-sex supervision may not prevent sexual misconduct, it may reduce it by cutting off a primary vector of sexual misconduct-cross-gender interactions between staff and inmates. Second, same-sex supervision may increase prisoner well-being by giving prisoners a greater sense of control over their bodies, thereby reducing their sense of vulnerability to abuse. Finally, adopting same-sex supervision policies would make the United States' position more congruent with international standards for the treatment of prisoners.


Sexual Abuse Against Women In Prison, Brenda V. Smith Apr 2001

Sexual Abuse Against Women In Prison, Brenda V. Smith

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

One of the by-products of the influx of women into correctional settings has been the emergence of sexual misconduct against women in prison as a major issue for corrections officials and attorneys who represent women. This article advocates for laws criminalizing sexual abuse of women inmates, as well as training to prevent such abuse.