As required by the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA), the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) presents its 2020 activities in conducting a comprehensive statistical review and analysis of the incidence and effects of rape in U.S. prisons.
This report is the tenth in a series that began in 2011. It fulfills the mandate established by the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-79) that requires the Bureau of Justice Statistics to carry out, for each calendar year, a comprehensive statistical review and analysis of the incidence and effects of prison rape. The Act requires a report, not later than June 30 of each year, on BJSs activities with respect to prison rape. This report describes BJSs data-collection and developmental activities during 2019 and 2020 to measure the incidence and prevalence of rape and sexual assault in correctional facilities, including through the National Survey of Youth in Custody, the National Inmate Survey, and the Survey of Sexual Victimization. Each of these collections is an independent effort, and they are not directly comparable.