Stop Prisoner Rape, Inc.
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Stop Prisoner Rape (SPR) is a national 501(c)(3) human rights organization that seeks to end all sexual violence against men, women, and youth in detention. Founded in 1980 by Russell Dan Smith, a survivor of prisoner rape, SPR called for serious corrections reform and respect for the dignity of inmates when few others had the courage to do so. See Barry Mehler. For more than two decades, SPR was kept afloat entirely by survivor volunteers, who refused to be silenced by the abuses they had endured while incarcerated or by the apparent indifference of government authorities.
In 2001, SPR opened its first office, located in Los Angeles. In the five years since, SPR has become the country’s leading voice in the effort to eliminate sexual violence behind bars. The organization now employs a growing, professional staff and is governed by a dynamic survivor-led Board of Directors. In December 2005, two veteran human rights professionals, Lovisa Stannow and Kathy Hall-Martinez, were appointed to serve as the organization’s Co-Executive Directors.
SPR has three core goals for its work: to advocate for policies that ensure institutional accountability for prisoner rape, to transform public attitudes toward inmates and their right to be free from sexual assault, and to promote access to resources for those who have survived this form of abuse. SPR was instrumental in securing passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA), the first-ever federal law addressing prisoner rape. Since PREA was signed into law by President Bush in September 2003, SPR has turned its attention to ensuring the law’s meaningful implementation.
