Balko is unimpressed by the government's actions to address the crime:
As part of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, Congress created a commission to study how to best address and prevent prison rape. In a wonderful display of a government commission acting with expediency to address an horrific and ongoing problem, that commission delivered its report . . . in June 2009. The law then required the Justice Department to issue recommendations based on the commission's report within 12 months. DOJ still hasn't delivered, and isn't expected to until the end of this yearat the earliest. In its preliminary responses, the DOJ has watered down most of the commission's recommendations. Even after all this is done, the recommendations are still just recommendations. There is unlikely to be any enforcement mechanism.