In American Jails Magazine - Exemplars of Success: Implementing PREA in a New Era for America's Jails

When most people think about American jails, they picture overcrowded, chaotic facilities where little good can happen. Those misperceptions are even more pronounced when it comes to sexual violence. Popular culture and media tropes routinely reduce jail rape to a grim punchline—the ever-present predatory “don’t drop the soap” narrative—and, implicitly or explicitly, suggest that sexual victimization is a form of deserved punishment that somehow remedies social ills rather than a profound human-rights violation (see also Smith & Dunton, 2024). In reality, adequately implementing the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) and ensuring sexual safety in American jails is complicated by deep structural challenges, even as hopeful and promising practices have emerged in many facilities.