When my brother was incarcerated I never heard the word PREA. It wasn’t until I started talking to people in the prison system and meeting Jameelah that I understand, now, the importance of knowing what is considered sexual assault and how to receive education and support. PREA is the Prison Rape Elimination Act that everyone should know about. It’s one of those subjects that people don’t talk about, however it’s a subject that we need to learn about if we want to put an end to it. It’s important to learn what is considered sexual abuse, and to know there are resources available to people both outside and inside the prison system.
Jameelah Lewis provides a compassionate and informative view of what PREA is and available resources that can help you and your loved ones if you are ever faced with abuse. Jameela is a PREA Coordinator and Advocate at the Rape Crisis Center.
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Listen to the podcast here:
What Is PREA And What You Need To Know About It With Jameelah Lewis
We have a very delicate subject that I actually didn’t want to discuss because it’s another one of those things that people don’t talk about, and a lot of people don’t even want to know about it. It’s sexual assault in prisons. If this is something you don’t want to know about or if it’s too sensitive for you, or if it’s too soon to hear about it, please read on another one of our shows. We’re going to speak with Jameelah Lewis, a PREA Coordinator at The Rape Crisis Center. For those of you who haven’t heard about it, PREA is the Prison Rape Elimination Act. When Jameelah and I first spoke, I wanted her to share the information, but wasn’t sure in which forum would be best. When somebody came up to me and told me that her autistic son was raped in prison, I knew that it was time to rip the Band-Aid off and to talk about it. Jameelah, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. Could you start by telling us about yourself, what your role is and a little bit more about PREA?
Thank you so much for having me here, Julia. It’s been a nice time getting to know you via email, calls and seeing your face, you look amazing. I know most of you won’t be able to see her, but she looks fabulous. Talking a little bit about my role, I work at The Rape Crisis Center as a PREA Coordinator and Advocate. As Julia said, PREA stands for Prison Rape Elimination Act. Oftentimes people ask me, “How did you get into that job? What do you have to do to get that role?” I often tell them, “Honestly, I don’t know. It was a calling for me to get here and I am honored to have this space to speak about my role and to do this work.”
Let’s talk a little bit more about PREA and then I’ll talk about what my role is in context to that standard. The Prison Rape Elimination Act was started in about 2003 when a group of advocates and activists thought it would be really important to advocate for those who were incarcerated and experienced some sexual violence, may that be exhibitionism, voyeurism, sexual assault and/or sexual harassment. I’ve named a ton of things that people probably haven’t even heard of those terms but maybe know the act. That was all started in 2003, a group of advocates were like, “Let’s make sure that people aren’t experiencing this and that it supports the most vulnerable populations.” A ton of research was collected and after a few years, in 2012, the standards were then implemented. People said, “We need this champion for PREA,” in 2003, but it took about nine years to gather all that information to implement these standards.
Prison rape is not something that’s new. It’s not something that has never been heard of before. We’ve all heard the term, “Don’t drop the soap,” and so on and so forth, but it’s so much more intricate than that. That’s what the PREA standards do. In 2012, when this was implemented, a lot of facilities started to take it on in 2013, specifically because all these facilities that were tied into the DOJ are getting grant funding to implement these PREA standards to protect those who are incarcerated, including our loved ones, family members, strangers and our general community.
A few years later, here comes me who just graduated from our fine college of UNLV here in Southern Nevada. I was applying for jobs. If you’re in the nonprofit world here in Southern Nevada, it gets a little difficult. I was applying and applying, I saw this job on LinkedIn at The Rape Crisis Center for a PREA Advocate. It says, “Criminal justice involved, you’re going to be an advocate.” I was like, “Cool,” then I applied. Once I got to the interview, I had no idea what PREA was, but I knew I was committed to supporting those who were incarcerated, as many people who are activists and advocates in this world are, such as Julia and many other folks in our community. I told them I was going to get this job because I was dedicated to doing this work just hearing the term. I went to school for four and a half years to get my degree in Criminal Justice, and no one ever talked about prison rape. No one even told me that there was an advocate or people who do this work specifically to support those who were incarcerated.
I was happy to take on this role. Specifically what my role does within The Rape Crisis Center as a PREA Advocate and Coordinator is I go into different facilities and I offer programming to those who are incarcerated, so that they can learn healing and coping skills, and how to manage that on their own. Most of the time, I only see my clients every week. Every two weeks, I have to give them skills and leave them with leave-behinds so that they can build up that strength and that resiliency themselves. We also practice, “What does self-care look like in setting boundaries?” What I also do in my role is I often get filtered calls from mostly NDOC and State facilities. These facilities pretty much are going to get audited under the PREA standard and has access to me at The Rape Crisis Center to get emotional support services.
Those emotional support services include working on triggers, PTSD impacts, it includes grieving a loved one or maybe someone who was harmed them in the past because a lot of times, people who have experienced sexual assault have experienced some abuse prior to. Oftentimes, people are grieving later in lives with those types of incidents or the people who are involved in those types of incidents. It’s also taking reports. We are not considered an outside reporter, but we are an entity in which people can report to. Essentially, everyone’s an entity in which someone who’s incarcerated can report to. If someone called Julia and said, “I experienced sexual assault while incarcerated at any facility here in Nevada,” Julia herself could be an advocate and call that into the facility or to the PREA Compliance Manager of NDOC and get an investigation started. That’s another part of my role, which is a really primary part of my role.
If we could just define a few things, the DOJ is Department of Justice and NDOC is the Nevada Department of Corrections, for people that might not be in Nevada. You were also talking about when somebody is taken into the system that they are told about PREA. Can you talk a little bit about that, so people do have the information they need?
Every person who’s incarcerated within any facility that’s part of the Department of Justice within the United States, has to be notified and educated about PREA. It doesn’t matter if you go to your local jail. It doesn’t matter if you’re in DJJS, which is the Department for Juvenile Justice Services or any local DOC, Department of Corrections Facility. There should be some type of education, regardless if it’s a pamphlet, a video, if it’s someone sitting down and speaking with you about PREA, what is considered under PREA, which most of the time, they’re going to explain that it’s sexual assault or sexual harassment, and that includes the other encompassing types of abuse. They also tell them who they can report to. In every facility, you should be able to report to someone in the facility as well as a third-party reporting agency. They’ll usually have that contact within the facility on a wall or on a flyer, and who you can contact. It doesn’t matter where you are.
I know that you’re located in Nevada. Who does it impact in Nevada and who does it impact in the prison system?
Yes, I’m located in Nevada. If any of my clients ever hear this, they’re going to be like, “Jameelah, you’re located in Nevada. Can you go to Reno or can you go to Lovelock or Humboldt?” No, I can’t go to those places, but I am available to have access to emotional support. I’m located in Southern Nevada. This kind of abuse happens within all the facilities, not to say that it’s prominent in all the facilities like there are tons of people reporting, and this is happening all the time. I would not say that or say that’s happening in all the facilities at all, but it does impact everybody in Nevada at any facility. Within the whole United States, there are about 2.2 million people who are incarcerated. Of that 2.2 million people, 10% of those people have reported experiencing some sexual assault and/or sexual violence while being incarcerated.
A lot of people are afraid of reporting because of the fear of retaliation. Share on XWe know that there’s a dark figure within that number, so that number may be higher or lower depending on the reporting entity, but it impacts people all across Nevada. Who are the people who have the access to seeing me? Because that’s what everyone wants to know, “If you are a PREA Advocate for the whole state, can you go talk to that person in Northern Nevada?” I wish I could, but it’s because I’m about eight hours of travel driving and an hour flight, and we’re a nonprofit rate. We usually don’t have those expenses to go to rural parts or northern parts of Nevada. I’m able to program to people specifically in Southern Nevada, and I try to make it to all the facilities in Southern Nevada, including transitional housing spaces. Anywhere you can touch me, I try to be at so that people know that they have a person and a place to get some support, especially those who are re-entering.
It doesn’t only impact those who are incarcerated, but people who are re-entering and system involved. There’s a cycle. Most of the time, specifically in Nevada, our recidivism rate is over 70%. That doesn’t mean 70% of people who are in prison are going to go back to prison, but that means 70% of people who are system involved are going to be system involved again. My door is specifically to support people in all phases. It doesn’t matter if you’re in probation and parole, or if you’re not attached to the model and you’re a general community member, but have been impacted by some type of abuse and trauma. In any point of the system, you have access to emotional support and services, or your loved one has access to emotional support and services. I have to shout out the loved ones. To those loved ones who are really doing this work and advocating for people, we also have resources for all of you as well.
What can people do if it happens to them, or if someone tells you that it’s happened to them? I think you started touching on that, but what is the best way to approach them or to support them?
There are many ways in which this can go about. If someone were to contact me, or someone was to disclose to you all and you wanted to contact me, I’m going to raise my hand to volunteer, to always support people who have been incarcerated by sexual assault prior to or during incarceration. If you’ve experienced some kind of sexual assault prior to incarceration, you’re going to still continuously experience that trauma. As I spoke with Julia, part of re-entry is healing, so we need to focus on those healing aspects. If someone were to contact me, what I would usually do is we actually have a PREA reporting form. If someone wants to disclose sexual assault to our Crisis Center and get some support, and that’s having us report that to the agencies so an investigation can get started, or reporting that so that that person can get some hospital accompaniment. We do all of that work.
It’s pretty prevalent and important parts of our work. That’s what I would start off doing is, “Would you like me to report this to the facility? Are you in need of any medical attention?” If they’re reporting that to anyone, regardless if it’s me, Julia, a family member, friend, whoever, a lawyer, that would be the first place I start. If someone’s disclosing sexual assault, “Do you want me to report this on your behalf so an investigation can get started? Do you want me to report this so that you can get an exam at a hospital?” Every person who’s incarcerated also has the right to a sexual assault exam. If you’re in Nevada, that’s usually going to happen at one of our UMCs here in Southern Nevada, or one of the renowned facilities up in Northern Nevada with one of the same nurses. That’s what I would definitely tell people to start.
Is there a Jameelah in Northern Nevada?
I wish I could split some of that work, but there are over 60-plus facilities in Nevada, and I’m the only Jameelah.
The point I was getting at is we’re lucky to have you here, boots on the ground. If somebody is in Northern Nevada or other states, that there are resources up there, plus also you guys are across the United States.
As far as resources, hypothetically if someone was in Northern Nevada and they were incarcerated and they needed some emotional support, that emotional support services would happen from me. If that person needed to go to the hospital and needed some hospital accompaniment, then the Crisis Center services of Northern Nevada would accompany that person to the hospital. Because of COVID, we’re not able to enter the hospital, so we offer that assistance via the phone. The same nurse usually allows an advocate to express those services via the phone line.
If somebody did contact you or let’s say it’s even here, is that confidential before you go anywhere with it?
Yes. Everything that person gives me is confidential, which is why it’s important to ask that person if they wanted it reported to the facility. Everyone has the right to report or not to report. Even if they choose not to report that sexual assault, they are still welcome and have access to emotional support services, regardless if they want to tell me and not tell the facility because oftentimes people are afraid of retaliation. If they are to tell on the person who assaulted them or if that was a correctional officer or another inmate, or maybe a volunteer, anybody who has access to the facility, a lot of people are afraid of reporting because of the fear of retaliation. I would definitely ask them, “Do I have your consent to share this information with anyone?” Regardless where they are as a survivor in the system, we would ask any victim, “Do we have your consent?” if it’s in the free world or if they’re incarcerated. No matter what issue, all victims are the same.
There are a lot of parents out there and spouses and significant others. If they want to ask their loved one about it if they have concerns, what do you think is the best way to approach that subject?
If this is not something they’ve talked to about their loved one before, I’d bring it up casually, I would bring it up like a conversational topic, “I was listening to this, and you and I never talked about this. Have you heard of PREA? Has this ever happened to you or anyone in there?” That might be the time for them to disclose. Or it might be the time to say, “I’ve seen some stuff happen, I want to talk about this.” Most people who are incarcerated don’t feel comfortable talking about this, regardless if they’re experiencing it or have experienced it or not. It doesn’t matter if they’re in the facility or not in the facility, people have a hard time talking about what’s happened behind those walls. Bringing it up in a way in which it’s not accusing them of having experienced something, but also asking, “I want to create this space for us to have this conversation if something ever happens.”
Bringing up casually, but not also saying, “I know this happens.” Also not seeming like a know it all because none of us know it all. If you are not incarcerated, we do not know it all. Bringing it up in a more subtle way and having a listening ear for whatever they want to talk about. Some people don’t want to talk about it and they will shut down. Listening to that silence and allowing space in case they want to have that conversation again.
My two cents is not to put it in a letter.
If they want to send a letter, I would definitely refer that person to send it to me because the good thing about sending things out of any DOC is that the facilities aren’t supposed to read the outgoing mail. Any mail that I send in personally is legal, confidential and privileged mail. It’s about the same statute that of a lawyer. Any conversations we have are on the same statute that individual would have with a lawyer. If we needed to meet in person, they would have that same space to with me as they would with a lawyer because they have that right to an advocate. I’m letting people know that there are resources out there and please access them because they’re our boots on the ground.
Going back to what you said about them sending you a letter, they would need to put on there like advocate or legal or something so it’s not read? They can read mail going out and in, but they can’t read legal mail. They have to put on the envelope to you to make sure that it wasn’t red.
They can write ‘legal correspondence’ or ‘privileged legal correspondence,’ and it would come directly to me so that we can share that correspondence privately. Even sometimes people will say, “I need this reported,” and I’m going to send you this information and making sure that it’s a legal, confidential mail so that I can go ahead and review that information. If they need a copy back, send them that copy, knowing that it’s not going to be tampered with.
Going back to the beginning, this is something that we want awareness. We want people to be aware that this is happening in some facilities, it’s not happening everywhere. After you read this, we don’t want you to still be worried about your loved one. However, we do want you to know that if it does happen to your loved one, that there are resources and it’s for anybody that’s incarcerated or returning citizens, people coming out of prison. Something I thought you said before we started was about people that have offended or the offenders.
I wanted to get back to that. Thank you, Julia. I wanted to emphasize that. The PREA standards are in place to support those who are most likely and most vulnerable to sexual assault while incarcerated. People who are most vulnerable and most targeted for sexual assault, sexual violence while incarcerated are people who are in there for sexual violence. Part of the PREA standards is working with those who have also offended, because we also know that they are likely to be offended while incarcerated. We don’t want it to continuously be a revolving door of offending and also victimization. We want to allow those people to heal and also grow from that trauma. People who have experienced trauma prior or during incarceration are eligible for our services. Most people who committed a sexual offense, because we don’t need to label people, have often also experienced some kind of sexual trauma prior to being incarcerated and committing their offense themselves.
Part of the PREA standards is acknowledging that and also supporting them through that trauma, and allowing them a pathway to heal and a pathway to cope. Other vulnerable populations are also people who identify as LGBTQIAP2S+. People who identify as part of the spectrum, specifically lesbian, gay, bi, trans and non-binary, they are also likely to experience sexual assault. There are people in our community who are trying to find the resources to advocate for people who specifically identify as trans who are being assaulted in DOC and other facilities. There is so much work that needs to be done around PREA.
Most people who are incarcerated don't feel comfortable talking about sexual assault in prison, regardless if they experienced it or not. Share on XThere are also people who live with disabilities. Some of these disabilities may be visible disabilities or invisible disabilities. They may be physical and/or mental disabilities in which a person does not have the ability to either fight that person away and/or give consent or take it away. There are so many layers. If anyone reads this, I’m going to shout myself out to reach out to me at The Rape Crisis Center. My name is Jameelah and you can email me at Jameelah@RCCLV.org, and ask me questions. This is an important conversation and I definitely want to put it on the top of people’s plates, especially when there’s legislation. There is actual national legislation out on the table right now, specifically regarding people who are incarcerated and experienced sexual violence. Anybody who can get involved, wants to know more and wants to help push for legislation for our most vulnerable populations, please contact me.
I have one last question for you, Jameelah. I don’t know if you addressed it, and if you did, let’s just reiterate it. Let’s say that there’s somebody on the outside and their loved one that is incarcerated is mentally challenged. They believe that there has been some kind of abuse. What can they do, or is there anything they can do? Does it have to come from the person who was affected?
If anyone reports, regardless if they have a mental disability or not, there has to be an investigation that takes place. Hypothetically, Julia, you have a loved one who’s incarcerated and they disclosed to you that they’ve experienced some kind of sexual violence and they’re living with a disability. The report doesn’t have to come from that person directly. You can go ahead if you have the consent of that person to report that to the facility. You can contact that facility’s PREA Compliance Manager, and it should be on their website, no matter what facility it is, if it’s a DOC facility or if it’s a local jail and/or private prison, you should be able to find that PREA Compliance Manager and make that report.
It’s really important, you need their consent.
Everything’s about consent at The Rape Crisis Center. We talk about consent because it is important, especially for people who have been victims and survivors. Because so much of their autonomy and their agency has already been pulled away from them, we want to make sure that we give them the complete consent at every stage of where we’re going. If it’s, “I think that this should be reported,” just because I think it should be reported, it doesn’t mean that person thinks it should be reported. We are definitely advocating on behalf of the victim. I would ask that person, “Would you like me to report this?” If they say yes, call the facility. What I would do is also reach out to civil rights organizations like the ACLU, Legal Aid and other organizations in your community as well as nationally, that may advocate for people who are incarcerated, who have disabilities or who identify as trans.
There are resources out there who can help elevate your cause and what’s going on. I will be a champion as far as I can be and I will do so much, but there are many resources and we have the most access to it because of the internet. I would ask them what they want to do, then depending on what it is, do some research because there are tons out there. You can start by asking me because I will send resources. If I don’t know, I will send resources to follow up.
One of your resources is the JDI. Could you talk about that, what it stands for?
I love them. They’re Just Detention International. They’re a national PREA advocacy organization who has their boots down here in the US as well as in South Africa. Their information is usually posted in all DOC facilities because their advocacy is so important. They offer legal advocacy. They offer access to speak with an attorney, as well as a gift information, the readings. They also will allow people to uplift their own stories on their platform. That’s something that many folks don’t have the access to is to express the impact of sexual assault. JDI is a hub of resources for those who were incarcerated and may have or have experienced sexual violence. It also ties you back to the National PREA Resource Center that has actually worked to create the PREA standards. You can go to either of those National PREA Resource Center or Just Detention International to learn more about the PREA standards and how they can be implemented in your facility, in some of our local facilities and also to hold people accountable. That’s what we need to think about too is holding people accountable.
If they do want to get more information from The Rape Crisis Center, what is that website and how would they get more information?
To get more information about The Rape Crisis Center, you can go to RCCLV.org to get more information about the services that The Rape Crisis Center offers. If you want to know more about our PREA services, you go to The Rape Crisis Center or RCCLV.org and go to our blogs. You can look at the blog and it will tell you about what our PREA coordinator does and more about the role. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Thank you so much, Jameelah. We will get this out and we’re going to have you speak it or a meeting and sharing information, I think it’s important. Thank you for being an advocate because people that are incarcerated don’t have a lot of resources available to them. Letting them know what is available is helpful. Most important, we need to remember that people that are incarcerated are human beings and we need to humanize them. What they did is not who they are, so helping people, both the perpetrators and the people that have been victimized, and helping to make people healthier, is going to reduce recidivism and help people when they come out so that they can be good citizens in society. That’s important. Thank you.
Thank you all for reading. I actually want to give another shout out to Julia, and friends and family of incarcerated people for inviting me and having this platform. I think it’s really important. I also want to thank all of you, friends and family members, who are supporting your loved ones. I know that this is tough work and I know that it can be very draining, but you are continuously being resilient along with those folks. I want to appreciate all of you for the work that you’ve done and setting ground for me to also join you in this space and advocating for our most vulnerable populations. I hope that if you’re looking for support, I can be a resource.
Thank you.
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About Jameelah Lewis
Jameelah Lewis, The PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) Coordinator/ Advocate, started her role within The Rape Crisis Center in December 2019 with a passion to make an impact on the criminal justice system and her community. After graduating in 2018 from UNLV with a BA in Criminal Justice minoring in African American and African Diaspora Studies, Jameelah focused her energy on what community restorative and transformative justice work. As a community activist Jameelah has been involved with uplifting and working towards the needs and liberation of people incarcerated, thus having the capacity to work with an already vulnerable population during crisis moments allows her to support a part of the community that people forget about.
As not only an advocate, but an activist for social change and equity, Jameelah has committed to supporting the community and believes that anyone can do the same with a bit of knowledge and the power to act.
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