MICHIGAN CITY — Prison Warden Ron Neal announced that the Indiana State Prison was certified as fully compliant with the National Prison Rape Elimination Act.

Full certification involves 100% compliance with each of the 43 standards and subsections,189 in total.

The Indiana State Prison met all the standards required for compliance and exceeded the standards in two areas: staff and volunteer training. The certification included a three-day site-review this past April.

Among the steps taken by the facility to comply with PREA: increasing inmate education about their rights and adjusting the process used to notify offenders of the duty to report for medical and mental health care staff.

The Department of Justice issued the PREA standards in 2012. PREA standards are designed to ensure that agencies are able to detect, prevent and decrease sexual harassment and sexual abuse of inmates by other inmates and staff members. The overarching goal of PREA is to have facilities run in a safe and secure manner. PREA is a “best-practice” model.

Neal expressed his appreciation to staff for their efforts during the PREA Audit.