In 2003, the U.S. Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush. Twelve years later, the sense of urgency and pace of change have slowed, the New York Times reports.
Last year, five states (Michigan was not one of them) decided to forgo some federal funds rather than have the goveror sign a letter committing to working on rape elimination. The report focused largely on Texas, where the governor said the federal government was intruding on the state's role in managing the corrections system.
“I am encouraged by what several states have done, discouraged by most and dismayed by states like Texas,” U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, former chair of a now-disbanded rape elimination commission, told the Times.
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