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Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center Achieves Federal PREA Compliance

(This article appeared on the website of Lubbock television station KCBD)

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - “I am excited to announce that on June 2, 2016 the Department of Justice certified the Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center as PREA compliant. This means LCJJC was found to be in compliance with all 41 of the audited PREA standards. We became only the 6th County operated facility in the State of Texas to do so,” said director William Carter.

“The Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center has always provided excellent care of the individuals in our custody and achieving this certification simply confirms our commitment to provide excellent services to the youth of Lubbock County,” said Carter.

The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was passed in 2003 with unanimous support from both parties in Congress. PREA is the first United States Federal Law passed dealing with sexual abuse of incarcerated persons.

The purpose of the act is 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.” (Prison Rape Elimination Act, 2003).

The act also created the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission and charged it with developing draft standards for the elimination of prison rape. Those standards were published in June 2009, and were turned over to the Department of Justice for review and passage as a final rule. That final rule became effective August 20, 2012.

“The hard work of our PREA Coordinator Mr. Regan Bullard and Facility Administrator Chris Hill along with all of our staff enabled us to achieve this certification and I want to thank them for their dedication to this project,” said Carter.

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