Tennessee Department of Children?s Services (TDCS) is a state department that conducts numerous types of investigations around the health and welfare; including sexual abuse and sexual harassment, of children in custody in TN. TDCS has requested up to 8 hours of coaching around the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) standards involving investigations, for example, Standards: 115.321 Evidence and Protocols for Forensic Medical Examinations, 115.322 Policies to Ensure Referrals of Allegations for Investigation, 115.334 Specialized Training for Investigators, 115.361 Staff ad Agency Reporting Duties, 115.367 Agency Protections Against Retaliation, 115.371 Criminal and Administrative Agency Investigations, 115.372 Evidentiary Standards for Administrative Investigations, and 115386 Sexual Abuse Incident Reviews.
The TDCS PREA Coordinator (PC), Juvenile Justice Executive Advisor, and Legal Administrator requested a thorough review of up to 30 recent PREA sexual abuse and sexual harassment investigative reports. PC requested that the review include the screening and assignment of the cases and that completed investigative findings be reviewed. Based on the investigative review, up to a four-hour virtual training for investigators and administrators will be administered before September 1, 2024.
PC identified areas of inconsistency regarding the crimt she is fully educated on the investigative process of PREA to ensure sexual safety for the state?s detention residents. inal and administrative process for screening allegations of sexual abuse and sexual harassment as well as conflicting information surrounding the preponderance of the evidence and the use of the terms substantiated, unsubstantiated, and unfounded. The consultant provided investigative training for members of TDCS in 2023. Since then, training staff have received what appears to be conflicting information in a CJJA virtual update meeting feature comment from the PRC. The video was reviewed and a discussion between the consultant and PRC took place before the coaching began.
PC also requested coaching assistance, monitoring which is currently not being performed due to TN state policy prohibition of releasing the referent information to staff; facilities are not currently being advised of who a referent is retaliation monitoring is currently not in place
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