Idaho’s efforts to confront prison sexual abuse hampered by Federal cuts

Editor's note: “Guarded by Predators” is an investigative series exposing rape and abuse by Idaho’s prison guards and the system that shields them. Find the entire series at investigatewest.org/guarded-by-predators.

By: Whitney Bryen / InvestigateWest

IDAHO (InvestigateWest) — As Idaho reckons with revelations of widespread sexual abuse by women’s prison staff, the Trump administration has cut off support meant to help states combat that kind of abuse.   

Funding for the National Prison Rape Elimination Act Resource Center was abruptly cut by the U.S. Department of Justice in April, shuttering the 15-year-old program that helped jails and prisons implement federal standards designed to protect incarcerated youth and adults from sexual exploitation and ensured facilities complied with those standards.

Some of that funding has been restored, and the resource center relaunched but with a more limited directive: It no longer supports facilities through training, consulting and grants. Now, it only monitors them. 

Trainings that once taught corrections staff in Idaho and across the country how to investigate sexual abuse behind bars have ceased. Guidance for detecting which inmates are most vulnerable to abuse and how to reduce that risk have not been updated. And grants that supported independent assessments of prisons and other efforts to increase inmate safety have halted. 

The impact of cuts to the resource center — run by a nonprofit through a cooperative agreement with the Department of Justice — played out at a recent meeting of Idaho's Board of Correction, which provides public oversight of the state prison system. 

The Dec. 3 meeting was prompted by InvestigateWest’s recent reporting, which exposed unchecked sexual abuse of inmates by women’s prison workers and retaliation against victims who spoke up. Idaho prison system director Bree Derrick, who previously disputed that there is a culture of letting guards off the hook for sexual abuse and retaliation, suggested that the board pay for an independent, “full-blown cultural assessment.” 

But amid a state budget crunch and crumbling prison infrastructure, board members balked at the $50,000 to $75,000 price tag, prompting the board chairman to ask if there was another source of funding for the study. 

“The federal PREA resource center used to cover that kind of thing,” Derrick answered. “But that’s no longer an option.”

It’s unclear exactly how much the impact of the cuts will trickle down to Idaho. Idaho’s Department of Correction said it received $10,224 in federal Prison Rape Elimination Act grants to be used between October 2025 and September 2026, but didn’t specify if that money came from the resource center, which gives facilities money for specific projects rather than providing recurring federal grants. That’s only a third of what the department received in 2022 to add cameras to two state prisons after a guard was charged with allegedly raping an inmate at Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center, the Idaho Statesman reported. 

Seven people working to prevent prison sexual abuse, including former U.S. Department of Justice employees, told InvestigateWest that dismantling that support system sends a dangerous message, particularly in Idaho, a state that incarcerates more women per capita than any other state and already struggles to protect people in its care. 

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to answer questions about the resource center’s new directive and whether more cuts are expected. An InvestigateWest request for public documents detailing the center’s funding is still pending. 

Linda McFarlane is the executive director of Just Detention International, a nonprofit that was paid by the resource center to advise jails and prison systems that requested support. That service is no longer available. The cuts, McFarlane said, send “the message that this is not a priority anymore.”

“And I think that sort of backsliding,” she said, “makes everybody less safe.”

Impact of changes still murky 

Eight months after the resource center relaunched, little is known about how much funding it has and how that money will protect people in custody.

When the Justice Department abruptly pulled its funding in April, shutting down the center, a spokesperson said “discretionary funds that are no longer aligned with the (Trump) administration’s priorities are subject to review and reallocation,” in an email to The Appeal.

Lorie Brisbin led Idaho’s efforts to prevent and respond to sexual abuse behind bars, even before federal standards were solidified. She later joined the National Institute of Corrections where she worked closely with the resource center to train correction employees nationwide. In the 15 years Brisbin worked there, she said it wasn’t unusual for programs to adapt and change based on the needs of facilities — but none were as jarring as what she witnessed this year.

“I think there was probably duplication and things in different offices that could have been looked at and handled in a very deliberate, thoughtful way,” Brisbin said. “But this slash-and-burn approach of, ‘Let's just get rid of everybody we think we don't need, and then we'll add them back on later if we find out we need them,’ it's just crazy.”

Changes to the resource center website offer clues into the administration’s agenda. Compliance monitoring at juvenile detention facilities, jails and prisons remains a priority. Helping facilities meet the standards no longer is. 

Before the center was shut down, the site described its mission as “working to eliminate sexual abuse in confinement” by assisting corrections agencies, family and community stakeholders. Now, its narrowed purpose is simply to “advance the conduct of PREA audits.”

Josephine Wonsun Hahn, who studies justice policy at the advocacy group Brennan Center for Justice, said even correctional facilities that auditors deemed in compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act are likely to suffer as a result of disappearing grants and expertise that was once available to correction facilities.   

“Eliminating these federal funds really undermines the implementation of the law across facilities, those in compliance or not, because even coming into compliance takes ongoing, dedicated work,” Wonsun Hahn said.

The public has been left in the dark about exactly how much funding was restored and how that money is being used. 

Impact Justice, the nonprofit that operates the resource center, refused to provide information about how it’s using taxpayer money.

In 2024, Impact Justice spent $8.8 million on the resource center, down from $9.2 million the year before, according to a financial audit. 

Former Justice Department and resource center employees declined to speak to InvestigateWest for this story or refused to be named, some citing fear of retaliation from the Trump administration. 

The federal standards require each state to have a Prison Rape Elimination Act coordinator who brings best practices to jails and prisons in their state and helps them follow state and federal policies. Members of the National Association of PREA Coordinators, which leads advocacy and collaboration efforts in the field, refused interview requests for this article, stating in an email that “we do not wish to compromise the position of our agencies on this politically charged issue.” 

Instead, they provided a written statement that said while the reduction in resources from the center “does not compromise our commitment to this principle, it does slow our progress. Compliance support — namely, training and technical assistance — previously provided by the PRC must now be patchworked together by a network of correctional professionals and agencies.” 

In Idaho, after InvestigateWest found discrepancies in the state’s compliance with PREA standards — such as failing to properly investigate and report complaints to law enforcement — Derrick announced that the Department of Correction would review its staff sexual misconduct policy and provide training for inmates on their rights under the federal law. Idaho’s PREA coordinator position, a person who would help guide those changes, has been vacated since the last coordinator retired in September. 

All of Idaho’s congressional delegates either failed to respond or declined interview requests about the federal cuts and InvestigateWest’s recent reports revealing rampant abuse by Idaho women’s prison staff and the state’s failure to properly investigate those allegations and hold abusers accountable. 

U.S. Senator Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, voted for the Prison Rape Elimination Act when it was passed in 2003. Crapo declined to be interviewed. Instead, his staff provided an emailed statement that said he has asked the Department of Justice for more information “about the PREA resource center and its future, as well as how DOJ will enforce statutory guidelines going forward.”

Independent audits

In most states, including Idaho, federal audits are the only mechanism enforcing the Prison Rape Elimination Act. 

Auditors certified by the PREA resource center assess whether jails and prisons track and investigate sexual abuse complaints, report them to law enforcement when a crime is alleged and follow policies that protect vulnerable inmates in line with federal standards. But so far, no new auditor trainings are scheduled despite a shortage that could delay mandatory inspections, according to several people interviewed who work in the field. 

That’s “one of the most detrimental losses,” the National Association of PREA Coordinators said in its statement. 

“Without a pathway any longer for professionals to become certified as a (federal) Auditor, it will become staggeringly difficult to maintain an effective audit process,” according to the group’s statement. 

The resource center also collects audit reports and makes them publicly available on its website. And it flags facilities that are in violation of safety standards, putting inmates at risk of sexual harassment and assault and states at risk of losing federal funding.  

The standards require juvenile detention facilities, jails and prisons to be audited at least once every three years. Auditors are chosen and paid by the prison system or facility they’re inspecting. 

The Idaho Department of Correction spends about $50,000 each year on audits, director Derrick said at the December meeting. 

Failed audits put states at risk of losing 5% of federal grants provided to prisons, which tallied more than $325,000 in the most recent funding year, according to the Idaho Department of Correction. 

An InvestigateWest review of Idaho’s most recent audit reports for its three women’s prisons found violations of the federal standards, including failure to report sexual abuse complaints to law enforcement. Auditors noted the discrepancies but passed the facilities anyway.  

Without a state system for overseeing Idaho prisons, federal audits are the only independent assessment of Department of Correction’s handling of sexual abuse behind bars. 

Some of those auditors and victim advocates criticize federal enforcement as toothless. 

McFarlane, whose nonprofit once advised facilities through the resource center and continues to push for stronger inmate-safety laws, said enforcement of the standards is weak despite ongoing audits. That shows states need more support, not less, to meet core standards like investigating sexual-abuse allegations.

“Investigations are nowhere near what they need to be,” McFarlane said. “Nowhere near. But they’re required to do them.” 

InvestigateWest (investigatewest.org) is an independent news nonprofit dedicated to investigative journalism in the Pacific Northwest. Reporter Whitney Bryen can be reached at 208-918-2458, whitney@investigatewest.org and on X @WhitneyBryen.