Sedgwick County Jail fully compliant with sexual-abuse law

The Sedgwick County Jail has been certified as fully compliant with the national Prison Rape Elimination Act, the Sheriff’s Office said Monday.

The PREA sets national standards to detect, prevent and decrease sexual harassment and sexual abuse of inmates by other inmates and staff members, the office said.

“The overarching goal of PREA is to have facilities run in a safe and secure manner, which is something the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office believes strongly in,” the office said in a statement. PREA is a “best-practice model,” it said.

The jail, the largest in the state, with an average daily population of about 1,125, is “among the first county-run jails in Kansas to be certified fully compliant” with PREA, it said.

In 2012, a Sedgwick County Jail deputy was accused of sexually assaulting inmates, and the case became an issue in the 2012 sheriff’s election. Jeff Easter defeated the incumbent, Robert Hinshaw. The deputy, David Kendall, pleaded no contest in June 2014 to six counts of attempted unlawful sexual relations with inmates and one count of making a false information.

The Department of Justice issued the PREA standards in 2012. That led Sedgwick County Jail officials to work through a 268-page document that sets the foundation for compliance, the office said.

“Because the state of Kansas does not require any jail standards, nor is there any kind of governing board to give guidance to jails, the task of compliance was even more challenging,” it said.

Among the steps taken to comply: adding nearly 450 digital cameras for safety, increasing inmate education about their rights, boosting staff awareness and improving the tracking of incidents so that accusations are thoroughly investigated and documented.

The certification involved a three-day audit this past November.

This story was originally published August 1, 2016 at 12:52 PM with the headline "Sedgwick County Jail fully compliant with sexual-abuse law."