As we wrap up our PREA "There's No Excuse"  Week of Action, we wanted to highlight efforts across the country and give everyone one more chance to support PREA implementation this week.

Today, Governors across the country will certify whether the state is in compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) and make assurances to the Department of Justice that the state will use federal resources to come into compliance with PREA.
YOUR SUPPORT AND YOUR VOICE MATTERS

Prisons and jails across the United States house youth under 18 with adults every single day. The most recent data from the Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics reports that nearly 4500 youth are held in jails and nearly 2000 in prisons on any given day. According to the new data, Florida houses over 200 youth each day in adult prison, Louisiana and New York, 178 and 182 respectively, Connecticut 143, North Carolina 115, and Michigan and Texas, 106 and 104. Georgia houses nearly 100.

This week on, May 15th marks the certification date for the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), and the CFYJ has been pushing for transparency and compliance with the Youthful Inmate Standard (YIS). The YIS was created to protect youth in adult jails, prisons, and lock ups and we are anxious to see how states will comply with this standard. With your help, it will become clearer to all of us what states are doing and how they plan to safely and humanely detain youth in adult jails/prisons. Our hope is that they realize that the safest and smartest plan is to simply remove youth completely.