According to Rich Aloy, Public Information Officer for the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office (SRSO), the SRC jail is the first in the nation to implement standards of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) first signed into law by President George Bush September 4, 2003. The final regulations went into effect August 20, 2012. The SRSO website has extensive PREA information including a report by Katherine Brown, certified PREA auditor who visited the detention facility last year.
Brown’s audit ran February 24 to 26 last year. According to her report, she interviewed inmates in various categories including limited English speaking, physically impaired (hearing in this case), a gay and lesbian inmate, as well as a juvenile inmate. She conducted a total of 23 randomly selected inmate and 10 security staff interviews.
Brown reported, “There were 2 sexual assault/harassment allegation cases, all relatively recent (within the past year) One case the inmate was charged with filing a false report the other case was exceptionally cleared.” Her report also indicated the jail met 40 standards, exceeded 2, and did not fall short on any.
Aloy said, “It’s important to know our citizens we run a very straight facility…We would rather not have people in our jail but if we do have them we'll take care of them make sure bad things don't happen to them.” The jail’s staff, he said, “is not there to punish but for care, custody, and control. The point is not to make lives miserable but tolerable for the person who made a mistake and their loved ones.”
Aloy said he knows the stigma of what jail is like, another reason the jail’s director, Major Killam implemented the program, he said. If the jail sounds too easy going on its inmates, Aloy reminds readers the jail also houses those awaiting trial. “Someone that gets arrested hasn’t been found guilty, so you could end up in the jail facility and (later) found innocent. We have to take that into consideration, rather do right for one person versus the opposite.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: SRC jail first in nation to act on PREA