Do Volunteers Need PREA Training?

Yes. If you'll have any contact with incarcerated individuals — even as an unpaid volunteer, a guest speaker, or someone visiting once a month — PREA training is required, not optional.

This is one of the most common questions from people preparing to volunteer, teach, or provide programming inside a jail or prison for the first time. The short answer is straightforward. The longer answer is worth understanding, because it affects what you're legally required to do before your first day.

What PREA Actually Is

PREA stands for the Prison Rape Elimination Act — a federal law enacted in 2003 to prevent, detect, and respond to sexual abuse and sexual harassment in confinement settings. The U.S. Department of Justice's PREA standards, found in the Code of Federal Regulations at 28 CFR Part 115, set out specific requirements that correctional agencies nationwide must follow.

Who Has to Complete It

Under the federal standards, PREA training applies to every employee, volunteer, and contractor who may have contact with incarcerated individuals — not just correctional officers. That includes educators, program facilitators, chaplains, mentors, and guest speakers. If you're stepping inside a facility in any of these roles, the training requirement applies to you the same as it applies to paid staff.

What PREA Training Actually Covers

PREA training generally covers:

• The facility's zero-tolerance policy toward sexual abuse and harassment
• How to recognize signs of abuse
• Appropriate professional boundaries in a setting where power differences are significant
• How and to whom to report a concern
• Your rights and protections — PREA prohibits retaliation against anyone who reports a concern in good faith

What This Means for You, Practically

As an educator, volunteer, or program professional, your responsibility under PREA comes down to a few clear expectations: maintain professional boundaries at all times, never be alone with an incarcerated individual in a way that violates facility policy, and immediately report any concern or suspicious behavior through the facility's designated reporting channel — which may be a PREA hotline, a compliance manager, or your direct supervisor.

One important distinction: every facility is required to provide its own PREA training, specific to that institution's policies and reporting channels. A general overview — including this article, or the module in our course — is a helpful starting point, but it doesn't replace the facility-specific training you're required to complete before beginning your role.