The Department of Justice has quietly directed federal prison auditors to halt the use of Obama-era standards that were crafted to provide special protections for transgender, intersex, and gender-nonconforming inmates, according to an internal memo reviewed by NPR.
The directive comes as the Trump administration moves to bring federal detention policies into alignment with President Donald Trump's Jan. 20 executive order rejecting what he has called "gender ideology extremism" and reaffirming that U.S. law recognizes only two sexes, male and female.
Until the Department of Justice completes its review of the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act standards, inspectors conducting audits of prisons and jails will no longer be required to evaluate facilities under rules specifically tailored to LGBTQ inmates.
The change affects federal prisons, state and local correctional facilities, juvenile detention centers, and immigration detention centers.
PREA auditors, who are certified by the DOJ but employed by corrections agencies or contracted by individual facilities, are responsible for evaluating compliance with federal rules designed to curb sexual assault and harassment behind bars.
Newsmax reached out to the DOJ for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Critics of the memo argue that rolling back these LGBTQ-specific requirements could increase risks for transgender inmates.
Linda McFarlane, executive director of Just Detention International, a group that for years has pushed for stronger federal oversight of prison sexual abuse prevention, claimed the change "will immediately put people in danger."
"It's going to make people less safe," she told NPR. "And when facilities are less safe for the most vulnerable and marginalized, they're less safe for everybody."
According to the memo, auditors will no longer review whether facilities house transgender inmates on a case-by-case basis according to their gender identity, nor will they assess whether sexual assaults may have been motivated by gender-identity bias.
These elements remain written in existing regulations but are to be marked "not applicable" during audits until new rules are finalized.
Advocacy groups cite older surveys — including one from 2015 by Black and Pink reporting that LGBTQ inmates experienced significantly higher rates of sexual assault — to argue against the DOJ's shift.
Brenda Smith, a law professor involved in the creation of the original PREA standards, told NPR that the new direction ignores long-standing concerns about inmate vulnerability.
PREA, passed with bipartisan support in 2003, created a nationwide audit system intended to curb sexual violence in detention facilities.
The most recent data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics showed over 36,000 allegations of sexual victimization in 2020, with 2,351 cases substantiated after investigation.
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