ACS is pleased to distribute The ADA Amendments Act: An Overview of Recent Changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act an Issue Brief by Emily Benfer, Supervising Attorney and Teaching Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center's Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic. In 1990, Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), extending protections against discrimination to the disabled. The author argues that the scope of protection afforded by the ADA has been narrowed over time by the United States Supreme Court in a series of decisions that limit the definition of "disability" under the ADA.

In 2008, Congress amended the ADA by passing the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA). Benfer argues that this legislation is intended to reinvigorate the ADA by expanding the meaning of "disability" to provide protection for individuals who would not have been considered disabled prior to the passage of the ADAAA. She examines the changes the ADAAA made to the ADA's three-pronged definition of "disability" and concludes that these changes substantially expand the scope of protection afforded by the ADA. Benfer draws extensively on legislative history in analyzing the meaning of the amendments to the ADA. She provides examples of conditions that should be considered disabilities in the wake of the ADAAA's passage, but would not have qualified as disabilities under the pre-amendment ADA. Benfer offers a roadmap for understanding and interpreting the ADAAA, and argues that "it is extremely important that the ADAAA be implemented consistently with Congress's intent to allow for individuals with disabilities to fully participate in a society free from discrimination."

ACS is pleased to distribute Improving Prison Oversight to Address Sexual Violence in Detention, an Issue Brief by Melissa Rothstein, the East Coast Program Director for Just Detention International (JDI), and Lovisa Stannow, JDI's Executive Director. In 2003, Congress focused national attention on the problem of sexual violence in our prisons, jails, and detention facilities when it passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). A commission created under the law just completed a comprehensive, five-year process that resulted in recommended national standards designed to address the problem, and Attorney General Eric Holder has one year to review the recommended standards and adopt final binding national standards. When adopted, the standards will immediately apply to all federal detention facilities, and states will have one year to certify their compliance or risk losing 5% of their federal corrections-related funding. Rothstein and Stannow argue that the national standards "have the potential to dramatically improve the safety of corrections facilities nationwide for officers and inmates alike."

In their Issue Brief, Rothstein and Stannow discuss the urgent need for national standards addressing sexual abuse in detention, in addition to a strong monitoring system to improve safety in detention facilities. The authors detail the problem of sexual violence in detention and its systemic and managerial underpinnings. They then discuss the recommended national standards, and examine the need for improved corrections oversight and the vital role that the national standards can play. Finally, Rothstein and Stannow conclude by urging the Attorney General to ratify the recommended standards, as well as establish a strong, independent mechanism for measuring compliance.