Twenty-three years ago, Congress did something almost unheard of in today’s political climate: it came together unanimously to confront one of the darkest realities inside America’s correctional system.

The Prison Rape Elimination Act, signed into law by then-President George W. Bush in 2003, established a national policy of zero tolerance for sexual abuse in prisons and jails. It required correctional agencies to adopt uniform standards for prevention, reporting, investigations, staff training, and victim services. More importantly, it forced the country to acknowledge that sexual abuse behind bars was not inevitable. It was a preventable institutional failure.