---
kind: "section"
citation: "34 U.S.C. § 30302"
title: "34"
title_heading: "Crime Control and Law Enforcement"
number: "30302"
heading: "Purposes"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/34/30302"
units:
  - "Subtitle III — Prevention of Particular Crimes"
  - "Chapter 303 — Prison Rape Elimination"
---

# §30302. Purposes


The purposes of this chapter are to—

- (1) establish a zero-tolerance standard for the incidence of [prison rape](/usc/34/30309.md?p=8) in [prisons](/usc/34/30309.md?p=7) in the United States;
- (2) make the prevention of [prison rape](/usc/34/30309.md?p=8) a top priority in each [prison](/usc/34/30309.md?p=7) system;
- (3) develop and implement national standards for the detection, prevention, reduction, and punishment of [prison rape](/usc/34/30309.md?p=8);
- (4) increase the available data and information on the incidence of [prison rape](/usc/34/30309.md?p=8), consequently improving the management and administration of correctional facilities;
- (5) standardize the definitions used for collecting data on the incidence of [prison rape](/usc/34/30309.md?p=8);
- (6) increase the accountability of [prison](/usc/34/30309.md?p=7) officials who fail to detect, prevent, reduce, and punish [prison rape](/usc/34/30309.md?p=8);
- (7) protect the Eighth Amendment rights of Federal, [State](/usc/34/30502.md?p=4), and [local](/usc/34/30502.md?p=3) prisoners;
- (8) increase the efficiency and effectiveness of Federal expenditures through grant programs such as those dealing with health care; mental health care; disease prevention; crime prevention, investigation, and prosecution; [prison](/usc/34/30309.md?p=7) construction, maintenance, and operation; race relations; poverty; unemployment; and homelessness; and
- (9) reduce the costs that [prison rape](/usc/34/30309.md?p=8) imposes on interstate commerce.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 108–79, § 3, Sept. 4, 2003, 117 Stat. 974.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

Section was formerly classified to section 15602 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare, prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section.