Skip to main content
Sunday, November 15, 2026Nov 15
Subscribe
All Sections
Search
More

Jails, prisons still trying to meet federal anti-rape rules

Miguel Moll, left, hands out snacks to children arriving to an after school program at an apartment complex, Friday, Sept. 2, 2016, in Fort Worth, Texas. Moll knew the risk of rape when he was thrown into a Texas jail in 1989 after joyriding in a stolen car. A generation later, the federal government has adopted guidelines intended to prevent prison rape in part by separating young offenders from adult inmates. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Miguel Moll, left, hands out snacks to children arriving to an after school program at an apartment complex, Friday, Sept. 2, 2016, in Fort Worth, Texas. Moll knew the risk of rape when he was thrown into a Texas jail in 1989 after joyriding in a stolen car. A generation later, the federal government has adopted guidelines intended to prevent prison rape in part by separating young offenders from adult inmates. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

By Associated Press 5 min read

HOUSTON (AP) – Miguel Moll knew the risk of rape when he was thrown into a Texas jail in 1989 after joyriding in a stolen car.

Then 17, he was placed in a holding pen in Houston, and an older inmate said of the teenager, “I got this one.” The comment sparked the first of many fights Moll had while behind bars.

“The mentality you have to develop very quickly is either that of a wolf or that of a lamb,” he recalled.

A generation later, the federal government has adopted guidelines intended to prevent prison rape in part by separating young offenders from adult inmates. But four years after the rules were supposed to take effect, they are proving difficult to adopt in the nation’s crowded jails and penitentiaries.

Since 2012, states have been working to meet the standards set forth by the Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, which was partially inspired by the 1996 death of Rodney Hulin, an undersized 17-year-old inmate who hanged himself in Texas after his requests for help following repeated rapes by adult inmates were denied.