American Correctional Association

Last updated

American Correctional Association logo American Correctional Association Logo.png
American Correctional Association logo

The American Correctional Association (ACA; called the National Prison Association before 1954) is a private, non-profit, non-governmental trade association and accrediting body for the corrections industry, the oldest and largest such association in the world. The organization was founded in 1870 and has a significant place in the history of prison reform in the U.S.

Contents

ACA accredits over 900 prisons, jails, community residential centers (halfway houses), and various other corrections facilities in the U.S. and internationally, using their independently published standards manuals. Approximately 80 percent of all U.S. state departments of corrections and youth services are active participants. Also included are programs and facilities operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the private sector.

Shane Bauer of Mother Jones wrote that the ACA functions as "the closest thing [the United States has] to a national regulatory body for prisons" in addition to being the American correctional industry's trade association. [1] According to their website, the ACA has more than 5,000 members. [2]

History

The ACA was founded under the name National Prison Association. The driving creative force was Enoch Cobb Wines, a minister and reformer who organized an 1870 congress in Cleveland, hoping to introduce the principles of the progressive New York Prison Association to a national stage. [3] Former U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes served as the organization's first president in 1883. Hayes "missed no opportunity to speak with well-informed sincerity about more effective and more humane ways of dealing with offenders". [4] He remained president until his death ten years later.

Roeliff Brinkerhoff, an Ohio publisher, political figure, and frequent Hayes ally, succeeded Hayes as the association president. For the next twenty years, Brinkerhoff used the NPA as a platform to pursue basic correctional reforms such as the separation of state and federal prison systems, and the idea of parole, then a relatively new concept. With Brinkerhoff's influence, the state of Ohio passed a state parole law in 1885, the nation's first. [5]

The organization's name was officially changed in 1954 to more accurately reflect the organization's philosophy and scope. [6]

ACA began exploring the feasibility of accrediting its members in the 1960s, funded in part by a sizable 1969 grant from the Ford Foundation. [7] In May 1974, the ACA created its "Commission on Accreditation for Corrections" in a meeting chaired by Walter Dunbar, a New York corrections figure known for his spokesman role at the Attica Prison riot. [8] (The ACA maintains an annual achievement award in his honor.) [9] In 1979, the Vienna Correctional Center, operated by the Illinois Department of Corrections, became the first accredited adult correctional institution. [10]

In 2011, ACA began to branch out, and it audited the first detention facilities outside of the U.S. or Canada. In January 2012 four Mexican facilities became accredited by ACA, using their Core International Standards manual. [11]

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, ACA received a $99,540 grant from Pfizer to promote uptake of their COVID-19 vaccine. [12]

Conferences

ACA hosts bi-annual conferences in different cities around the U.S. The first conference is the "ACA Winter Conference" with the year included in the title before ACA. It holds its second annual conference, the Congress of Correction, during the summer. Notable speakers at ACA conferences have included General Richard Myers, Congressman Danny Davis, presidential campaign director Donna Brazile, presidential candidate and commentator Pat Buchanan, covert CIA agent Valerie Plame and her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, TV anchor Laurie Dhue, political analyst Charlie Cook, and Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak.

Executives

Past presidents

Controversies

Value of accreditation

In 1982, a 72-year-old senior judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Judge David L. Bazelon, resigned from the governing panel of the ACA with a 21-page statement of criticism. Bazelon had three years remaining on his five-year term. He described its lack of transparency and accountability, its apparent willingness to bend to political influence, and its dual role as a trade group and accreditor. Bazelon pointed out the apparent conflict of interest, writing, "How can the commission in good conscience represent itself as 'independent' and 'unbiased' while being financially dependent on the objects of its scrutiny?" [23]

Bazelon also pointed out that ACA inspection teams at the Menard Correctional Center in Illinois, for example, did not even contact U.S. District Court Judge James L. Foreman, who had found the medical care so poor as to violate the constitution, and did not contact Dr. Lambert King, the special master Judge Foreman had appointed in 1980 to oversee the mandated improvements before they filed their approving reports. [23]

Later critics have named several other institutions that retained their ACA accreditations while outside parties found grave violence and/or court-ordered reforms. [24] These include:

Executives

Christopher B. Epps

On November 5, 2014, Christopher B. Epps resigned from his position as ACA president, shortly before the announcement of his indictments on dozens of corruption charges. Epps had been identified by a federal investigation conducted by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi called Operation Mississippi Hustle. He'd taken $1.47 million in kickbacks, from 16 corporations, for his role in awarding nearly $1 billion worth of private prison contracts. [26] [27] [28] Epps also resigned from his full-time job as Corrections Commissioner for the state of Mississippi on the same day. [28] [29]

Epps pleaded guilty to money laundering and filing false tax returns. Many vendors were indicted, some pleaded guilty, one committed suicide, and eleven more suspects faced criminal bribery charges. The Assistant U.S. Attorney estimated the corruption's net benefit to prison contractors exceeded $65 million. [30] Epps personally received at least the bribes for steering what Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren LaMarca had first estimated at $800 million in contracts between 2006 and 2014. [31] Presiding Federal judge, Henry Travillion Wingate heard the cases of the others who were charged with bribing Epps.

Irb Benjamin was charged with bribery of Epps in connection with the contractual drug and alcohol treatment his company provided to MDOC prisons. Benjamin's indictment was announced on August 22, 2015. He was paid at least $862,000 to acquire and maintain ACA accreditation for jails in numerous counties. Passing ACA standards was required if they were to be awarded contracts to hold state prisoners. [32]

Benjamin had represented Alcorn County as a Democrat in the state House from 1976 to 1980 and state Senate from 1984 to 1992, later working for the Republican Lieutenant Governor. Alcorn County paid Benjamin, the president and lobbyist for Mississippi Correctional Management (MCM), $114,000 a year, although he lived more than 200 miles away. The Alcorn Board of Supervisors attorney said the supervisors had not been required to seek bids before giving Benjamin the contract as warden because it was a contract for services, which are exempt from bid laws.

Benjamin had received $5,000 a month to handle accreditation by the American Correctional Association for Alcorn's Regional Correctional Facility, and he had received another $4,500 a month as the jail's warden. Benjamin had formed MCM in 1996, when the state Department of Corrections and counties started hiring private contractors to operate prisons and smaller regional jails. It operated the Grenada County jail for years. Benjamin said the company also has jail accreditation contracts worth $4,000 or $5,000 a month with other counties including Chickasaw, Hancock, Holmes, Marion, Pearl River, Washington, and Yazoo. Prior to that he worked as a $3,000-a-month jail consultant for DeSoto County.

On June 8, 2008, DeSoto County Board of Supervisors supervisors approved the contract saying, "Mr. Benjamin was recommended by Commissioner Epps at the state level." On November 25, 2014, Benjamin said that he was not aware of the Epps recommendation. [33] [34]

Benjamin pleaded guilty to federal charges on October 18, 2016. [35] He faced 10 years in prison, plus a fine of up to $250,000. [36] Federal presiding Judge Wingate sentenced Benjmain to 70 months in prison, fined Benjamin $100,000, and ordered him to forfeit $260,782.

Benjamin, who said he was "pressured", estimated he had paid Epps between $180,000 and $225,000 in cash bribes to secure support for the regional jails. His plea covered bribes that had been paid for drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs that his company ran. LaMarca told Wingate, "it's just a matter of time" until others whom Benjamin informed upon are indicted. [34]

On May 25, 2017, Epps received a federal prison sentence of almost 20 years. [37] Judge Wingate, who had been appointed to the federal bench in 1985, said, "This is the largest graft operation that certainly I have seen, and I have seen a lot." [38] Wingate cited the burglary of his former Flowood home by Epps as the reason why he gave a sentence that was much longer than the 13-year sentence recommended by prosecutors. [39]

Epps is being held at the Federal Correctional Institution, Seagoville in Texas, near Dallas. He is due to be released on November 25, 2033. [40]

James A. Gondles Jr.

James A. Gondles Jr. became the executive director of ACA in 1990, after serving as the sheriff of Arlington County, Virginia. Court records indicate a long history of suits and allegations of mistreating his staff. Gondles was accused of sexual harassment, "acts of abuse of power", fraternizing and having sex with female deputies, bullying top aides, and targeting Arlington County employees who supported his opponent during his 1987 campaign for sheriff. [41] In 1988, while he was serving as Sheriff of Arlington County, the Citizens for Law and Constitution alleged that Gondles had performed "acts of abuse and power" as sheriff, such as bullying aides and bragging about having sex with female deputies. Also in 1988 Gondles settled a sexual harassment suit, brought by a female deputy, with a $25,000 payment and a public apology. [42]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mississippi Department of Corrections</span> State agency that operates prisons

The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) is a state agency of Mississippi that operates prisons. It has its headquarters in Jackson. As of 2020 Burl Cain is the commissioner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CoreCivic</span> U.S. prison-operating company

CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. Co-founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee by Thomas W. Beasley, Robert Crants, and T. Don Hutto, it received investments from the Tennessee Valley Authority, Vanderbilt University, and Jack C. Massey, the founder of Hospital Corporation of America.

Henry Travillion Wingate is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global Tel Link</span> Corrections phone system provider

Global Tel Link (GTL), formerly known as Global Telcoin, Inc. and Global Tel*Link Corporation, is a Reston, Virginia–based telecommunications company, founded in 1989, that provides Inmate Calling Service (ICS) through "integrated information technology solutions" for correctional facilities which includes inmates payment and deposit, facility management, and "visitation solutions". The company's CEO is Deb Alderson. In 2020, GTL delivered 4.1 billion call minutes to incarcerated individuals and their families.

The Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) is a Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) prison for men and women located in an unincorporated area in Rankin County, Mississippi, United States, between the cities of Pearl and Brandon. The 171-acre (69 ha) prison was, for a period of time, the only state prison to hold female prisoners in Mississippi, in addition to minimum and medium security male offenders. It operates as the female death row of the state.

Arizona State Prison – Kingman is a privately run minimum/medium-security prison designed to hold 3500 prisoners. It is located in unincorporated Mohave County, Arizona, in Golden Valley. When the idea of the prison was being sold to the residents of Golden Valley it was promised that it would be a prison only for Dui offenders. It was operated by the Management and Training Corporation under contract to the Arizona Department of Corrections until August 2015. MTC had been criticized for allowing the homicidal escape of three violent prisoners in 2010. The state began seeking an alternate provider after it found MTC failed to control riots on July 1, 2 and 4, at Kingman, in July 2015.

Management & Training Corporation or MTC is a contractor that manages private prisons and United States Job Corps centers, based in Centerville, Utah. MTC's core businesses are corrections, education and training, MTC medical, and economic & social development. MTC operates 21 correctional facilities in eight states. MTC also operates or partners in operating 22 of the 119 Job Corps centers across the country. They also operate in Great Britain, under the name MTCNovo.

Wexford Health Sources, Inc. is an American healthcare services company that is headquartered in Foster Plaza Two in Green Tree, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.

Corizon Health, Inc. is a privately held prison healthcare contractor in the United States. The company provides healthcare and pharmacy services (PharmaCorr) to approximately 28 clients in 15 U.S. states, including 139 state prisons, municipal jails, and other facilities. Serving over 115,000 inmates, Corizon Health offers dental, mental health, optometry services, and substance abuse treatment as well as general healthcare. The company is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Correctional Institution, Jesup</span> Federal prison in Jesup, Georgia

The Federal Correctional Institution, Jesup is a medium-security United States federal prison housing male inmates in Jesup, Georgia. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a United States Department of Justice division. It has two adjacent satellite facilities: a low-security facility and a minimum-security prison camp, housing male offenders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility</span> Prison

Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility (TCCF) is a private prison for men, authorized by the Tallahatchie County Correctional Authority and operated by CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America on behalf of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. The maximum-security facility is located in unincorporated Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, near Tutwiler in the Mississippi Delta. Since its opening with 352 prisoners, the prison has expanded capacity nearly ninefold, holding 2672 inmates by October 2008. It has housed inmates from Wisconsin, Colorado, Hawaii, Wyoming, Vermont, and California, in addition to prisoners from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. In 2010 the facility served as a county jail and also housed more than 1,000 prisoners from California. Since 2013, it has not held Mississippi state prisoners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Mississippi Correctional Facility</span>

East Mississippi Correctional Facility is a men's prison located in unincorporated Lauderdale County, Mississippi, near Meridian. It is about 90 miles east of the capital, Jackson. Opened in 1999, the special needs prison is intended to provide a high level of care for up to 1500 prisoners with serious mental illness, at all custody levels.

The Walnut Grove Correctional Facility, formerly the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (WGYCF), is a state prison in Walnut Grove, Mississippi. It was formerly operated as a for-profit state-owned prison from 1996 to 2016. Constructed beginning in 1990, it was expanded in 2001 and later, holding male youth offenders. It had an eventual capacity of 1,649 prisoners, making it the largest juvenile facility in the country. Contracts for the facility's operations and services were among those investigated by the FBI in its lengthy investigation of state corruption known as Operation Mississippi Hustle.

Bennett Malone was an American politician in the state of Mississippi.

Christopher B. Epps is a federal inmate and a former commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) and career employee in the state criminal justice system though he started his career as a teacher. Appointed as Commissioner in 2002 and serving until 2014, he served under three governors and was the agency's longest-serving commissioner in its history. Epps came up within the department as a 32-year career employee.

Wilkinson County Correctional Center (WCCC) is a private prison in unincorporated Wilkinson County, Mississippi, managed since July 2013 by Management and Training Corporation (MTC) on a five-year contract with the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

Operation Mississippi Hustle was a federal investigation initiated in 2014 by the United States Attorney and prosecuted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. It examined the relationship between officials of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and various for-profit prison contractors and subcontractors, who have provided services to the five private prisons in the state. One, Walnut Grove, closed in September 2016 but has since reopened.

Marshall County Correctional Center (MCCF) is a prison in Holly Springs, Marshall County, Mississippi, operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections. It was formerly a for-profit prison managed by Management and Training Corporation (MTC) on behalf of MDOC.

Terrell Don Hutto, known as T. Don Hutto, was an American businessman and one of the three co-founders of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), whose establishment marked the beginning of the private prison industry during the era of former President Ronald Reagan. In 1983, Hutto, Robert Crants and Tom Beasley formed CCA and received investments from Jack C. Massey, the founder of Hospital Corporation of America, Vanderbilt University, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The T. Don Hutto Residential Center, one of CCA's detention centers, was named after him.

Cecil McCrory is a former Mississippi state legislator, justice court judge, Rankin County school board president and businessman. His indictment was made public in November 2014 for corruption related to his dealings with prison industry contractors. It was later revealed that he had become an informant in the investigation, along with his partner in crime, ex-Commissioner of Corrections in Mississippi, Chris Epps. Epps was sentenced to 235 months and McCrory to 102 months in federal prison. Both men were fined and ordered to pay restitution. McCrory is being held at the Federal Correctional Institution, Talladega, Alabama, with a scheduled release date of April 24, 2025.

References

  1. ↑ Bauer, Shane. "My four months as a private prison guard." Mother Jones . July/August 2016. Retrieved on June 27, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Past, Present and Future". Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  3. ↑ Marilyn D. McShane, Frank P. Williams (2 August 2004). Encyclopedia of American Prisons. Routledge. p. 45. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  4. ↑ Keve, Paul W. (1995). Prisons and the American Conscience: A History of U.S. Federal Corrections. SIU Press. p. 24. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  5. ↑ Keve, Paul W. (1995). Prisons and the American Conscience: A History of U.S. Federal Corrections. SIU Press. p. 25. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  6. ↑ "ACA History". American Correctional Association. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  7. ↑ Marilyn D. McShane, Frank P. Williams (2 August 2004). Encyclopedia of American Prisons. Routledge. p. 1. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  8. ↑ "Walter Dunbar, Probation Chief Who Gave Data on Attica, Dead". The New York Times . 30 September 1975. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  9. ↑ "Walter Dunbar Accreditation Achievement Award". ACA. Archived from the original on 13 September 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  10. ↑ "Vienna - it's a jewel among prisons". Chicago Tribune . 17 July 1979. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  11. ↑ "Accreditation of the Mexico Federal Prison System: utilizing core international standards".
  12. ↑ "US Medical, Scientific, Patient and Civic Organization Funding Report: Q1-Q2 2021" (PDF). Pfizer. 2021-09-27. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-05-09. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
  13. ↑ "Contact Us". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02.
  14. ↑ Colonel Joseph F. Scott dead, The New York Times, December 15, 1918. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  15. ↑ Woodward, Colin Edward (August 9, 2017). "Terrell Don Hutto (1935–)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
  16. ↑ Harmon L. Wray Jr. (1989). "Cells for Sale". Southern Changes: The Journal of the Southern Regional Council. 8 (3). Retrieved February 13, 2017. Another West Point alum and major CCA investor is T. Don Hutto, the corporation's executive vice-president. Hutto, an ex-prison guard who became commissioner of corrections in Virginia and Arkansas, has since 1984 been president of the American Correctional Association, which oversees prison accreditation standards. Unlike other corrections-related professional associations[...]the ACA under Hutto's tenure has supported prison privatization.
  17. ↑ "2014 E.R. Cass Awards". American Correctional Association. Archived from the original on 19 February 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  18. ↑ About Harold W. Clarke Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine . Commonwealth of Virginia. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  19. ↑ "Meet Gus Puryear, Bush's latest villainous nominee for a lifetime judgeship", Alternet, Silja Talvi, May 4, 2008. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  20. ↑ Former Mississippi Prison Chief Sentenced to Nearly 20 Years, U.S. News & World Report , Jeff Amy (AP), May 24, 2017. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  21. ↑ Gates, Jimmie E. (2017-05-24). "Chris Epps sentenced to almost 20 years". The Clarion-Ledger . Retrieved 2017-12-17.
  22. ↑ Pickens, Erin (2017-07-03). "Former MDOC chief serving time in Texas prison". WAPT . Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  23. 1 2 judge-quits-panel-on-prison-ratings.html Judge quits panel on prison ratings, The New York Times, Wendell Rawls, Jr., August 8, 1982. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  24. ↑ Friedmann, Alex (10 October 2014). "How the Courts View ACA Accreditation". Prison Legal News. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  25. ↑ John, Burnett (24 April 2012). "Miss. Prison Operator Out; Facility Called A 'Cesspool'". National Public Radio. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  26. ↑ In Epps case, still unclear who else is implicated [ permanent dead link ], Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal , Jeff Amy (AP), June 13, 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  27. ↑ Ex-prison chief's co-defendant wants to withdraw guilty plea Archived 2016-05-07 at the Wayback Machine , Jackson Free Press , Jeff Amy (AP), April 11, 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  28. 1 2 "The Prison Reform Blues". Buzzfeed News. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  29. ↑ Williams, Timothy (November 6, 2014). "Christopher Epps, former chief of prisons in Mississippi, is arraigned". The New York Times Retrieved September 13, 2015.
  30. ↑ Amy, Jeff (June 30, 2016). "Prosecutor: 11 more to be charged in Mississippi prison bribery inquiry". June 30, 2016. Retrieved August 30, 2016.
  31. ↑ Gates, Jimme E. (August 24, 2016). "Former insurance broker for MDOC indicted in Epps case". The Clarion-Ledger . Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  32. ↑ Amy, Jeff (August 22, 2016). "1 Pleading guilty in prison bribery case". Associated Press. Jackson Free Press. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  33. ↑ pays ex-lawmaker thousands for jail work, Washington Times , Emily Wagster Pettus (AP), November 25, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  34. 1 2 Ex-lawmaker Irb Benjamin gets six years in bribery scandal, The Clarion-Ledger , Jeff Amy (AP), March 3, 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  35. ↑ Brumfield, Patsy R. (October 3, 2016). "Former state senator to plead guilty in Epps bribery case". Mississippi Today . Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  36. ↑ Nave, R.L. (October 18, 2016). "Irb Benjamin pleads guilty in Epps bribery case". Mississippi Today . Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  37. ↑ Gates, Jimmie E. (2017-05-25). "Ex-prison chief gets nearly 20-year sentence". USA Today at MSN. Archived from the original on 2017-05-25. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
  38. ↑ Amy, Jeff (May 24, 2017). "Former Mississippi Prison Chief Sentenced to Nearly 20 Years". Associated Press. U.S. News & World Report . Retrieved September 22, 2020.
  39. ↑ Gates, Jimmie E. (May 24, 2017). "Chris Epps sentenced to almost 20 years". The Clarion-Ledger . Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  40. ↑ Pickens, Erin (July 3, 2017). "Former MDOC chief serving time in Texas prison". WAPT . Retrieved September 22, 2020.
  41. ↑ "PIERSON v. GONDLES" . Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  42. ↑ Dana Priest "Harassment suit settled by Gondles". Washington Post. March 2, 1988. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.