December 4, 2025

On December 3rd, 2025, the Department of Justice issued guidance to DOJ-Certified PREA Auditors that all PREA auditors are instructed to immediately pause from making compliance determinations for specified subpargraphs of the Standards that were deemed to conflict with President Trump’s January 20, 2025 Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

Listen to and read the story on NPR here: DOJ orders prison inspectors to stop considering LGBTQ safety standards

Our interpretation of the current action is that the protection set forth the the regulations establishing the PREA Standards remain unchanged. While these elements of the Standards are no longer being audited, unless and until the DOJ amends the regulations, they are still the law.

The NPCA is steadfast in our belief that through the PREA Standards and a culture that will not tolerate any form of sexual victimization in our confinement facilities, it is imperative that we continue to protect those in confinement who are most vulnerable. Thus, whether a system adopts a binary sex approach or one that recognizes a spectrum of gender, we cannot forsake our primary responsibility to keep the most vulnerable individuals in our care safe from those who present a threat of sexual abuse or sexual harassment.    The full NAPC response to NPR’s request for comments is available here.

The memorandum to PREA Auditors is available below.