Federal money for counseling people in prison who faced sexual abuse
S. 5537 — Sexual Abuse Services in Detention Act · Filed by Brian Schatz (D-HI) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill gives $10 million each year from 2027 to 2032 to nonprofits. They help people in prison and jail who have been sexually abused. The nonprofits offer crisis help, trauma counseling, and safety plans. The bill also pays $5 million a year to train prison staff. It pays $2 million a year to run a national center. The center shares best practices. The Attorney General's Office for Victims of Crime sends the money. It goes to nonprofits and prisons.
Who it affects
People in prison and jail who have been sexually abused get counseling and crisis help. Nonprofit groups that do rape crisis counseling can get grants. Prison and jail staff get training.
One thing to notice
Grants are voluntary. Whether people get help depends on whether their prison or jail chooses to partner with a nonprofit.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- Sep 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 24, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- trauma counseling — Help from a trained person to process painful or scary events and heal
- nonprofit — An organization that does not try to make money for owners; money goes back into the work
- Attorney General's Office for Victims of Crime — A federal office that gives money and help to people harmed by crime
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,806 characters) on Oct 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal money for counseling people in prison who faced sexual abuse” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5537/simple Report an error
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