The Justice Department has directed prison and jail auditors to stop using standards specifically designed to protect transgender, intersex and gender‑nonconforming people from sexual violence, according to an internal memo obtained by NPR.
The memo says DOJ is revising federal standards under the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) to align with President Trump’s January executive order on “gender ideology extremism,” which asserts the United States recognizes only two sexes, male and female. While that rulemaking is underway, the memo instructs auditors to mark certain PREA standards as “not applicable” during audits of federal and state prisons, jails, juvenile facilities and immigration detention centers — even though the rules remain technically in effect until formally changed.
PREA audits are one of the few oversight tools for measuring whether facilities follow requirements meant to prevent rape, harassment and retaliation. Auditors, who are certified by the DOJ but hired by corrections agencies or individual facilities, visit sites, interview staff and inmates, tour facilities and review procedures. The memo says auditors should no longer evaluate whether facilities house transgender people based on gender identity on a case‑by‑case basis, and should not consider whether sexual assaults were motivated by gender‑identity bias.
Advocates warned the change will put already vulnerable people at greater risk. Data and survivor reports have shown that transgender and gender‑diverse people face far higher rates of sexual victimization behind bars. A 2015 survey by criminal justice group Black and Pink, based on responses from more than 1,110 incarcerated people, found LGBTQ prisoners were over six times as likely to be sexually assaulted as the general prison population. Brenda Smith, director of The Project on Addressing Prison Rape at American University Washington College of Law and a former member of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, said the memo ignores that grim reality.
Linda McFarlane, executive director of Just Detention International, said the rollback “will immediately put people in danger” and added, “When facilities are less safe for the most vulnerable and marginalized, they’re less safe for everybody.”
The memo comes amid other administration actions limiting protections for transgender people. In his early days in office, Trump reversed policies that allowed incarcerated trans women to be housed consistent with their gender identity. He has also issued executive orders banning transgender troops from serving openly and restricting gender‑affirming care for minors; those orders face ongoing legal challenges.
Critics also note broader moves affecting PREA implementation: in the spring, DOJ made major funding cuts to crime‑victim advocacy programs, including the National PREA Resource Center, which trains auditors, tracks investigative outcomes and provides resources to victims and auditors. More than 360 grants were cut in April, though funding for many was later reinstated following media reports.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that in 2020 correctional administrators logged 36,264 allegations of sexual victimization in prisons, jails and other adult correctional facilities; 2,351 allegations were substantiated after investigation. PREA’s standards were developed after years of bipartisan work in response to data, survivor accounts and reports highlighting the prevalence of sexual violence behind bars.
The DOJ did not respond to NPR’s request for comment on the memo. The National Association of PREA Coordinators, a professional group for compliance coordinators, said that because the DOJ has not finalized any new PREA regulations, the current standards remain unchanged. The association noted the memo effectively allows each corrections agency or facility “to continue following the regulation or, if they choose, to ignore it,” and urged that systems adopt policies that protect the most vulnerable people in custody.
The memo has also created confusion among auditors. Kenneth L. James, a PREA auditor working in multiple states, told NPR the guidance makes auditors’ work “both more confusing and more difficult,” affecting training and possibly how compliance is assessed. Still, he expressed hope that facilities will continue to act to protect incarcerated people given PREA’s long history and the known prevalence of sexual abuse in detention.