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.
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.Bauer, Shane. "My four months as a private prison guard." Mother Jones. July/August 2016. Retrieved on June 27, 2016. According to its website, the ACA has more than 5,000 members.
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. 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". 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.
The organization's name was officially changed in 1954 to more accurately reflect the organization's philosophy and scope.
ACA began exploring the feasibility of accrediting its members in the 1960s, funded in part by a sizable 1969 grant from the Ford Foundation. 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. (The ACA maintains an annual achievement award in his honor.) In 1979, the Vienna Correctional Center, operated by the Illinois Department of Corrections, became the first accredited adult correctional institution.
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.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, ACA received a $99,540 grant from Pfizer to promote uptake of their COVID-19 vaccine.
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 Jelly Roll Misty Copeland 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.
E.R. Cass Award
The American Correctional Association bestows the E.R. Cass Correctional Achievement Award every year for "service above self and above and beyond the call of duty."
+ E.R. Cass Award Winners Year Awardees 2025 Annette Chambers-Smith Bryan Collier Jeffrey Washington 2024 Arthur F. “Art” Beeler Douglas “Doug” Dretke 2023 Gary C. Mohr Viola Riggin
Derrick D. Schofield
Michelle Staples-Horne, MD, MS, MPH 2022 Damon Hininger Anadora “Andie” Moss 2021 Dr. Dean Aufderheide Tony Wilkes 2019 Dave Donahue Mary Livers, Ph.D. 2018 Patricia Caruso Daron Hall 2017 James A. Gondles, Jr. 2016 David Haasenritter Odie Washington 2015 Elizabeth F. Gondles, Ph.D. Brad Livingston 2014 Harold W. Clarke Denise Robinson 2013 Mark and Barbara Inch Patrick W. Keohane 2012 Nathan “Burl” Cain Gary D. Maynard 2011 Lannette Linthicum, M.D. Richard Seiter 2010 Harly Lappin Larry Norris 2009 Albert Murray Thomas Stickrath 2008 Rev. Anthony J. Bruno Arthur Leonardo 2007 Charles J. Kehoe Maryann Saar 2006 Walter Ridley S. Anne Walker 2005 Glenn S. Goord Charlotte A. Nesbitt 2004 Betty Adams Green Geno Natalucci-Persichetti 2003 Sister Margaret Graziano Michael Quinlan 2002 Denis Shumate Richard Stalder 2001 Joseph D. Lehman Virginia Swanson 2000 Anabel P. Mitchell Reginald A. Wilkinson 1999 Gwendolyn Chunn Mary Q. Hawkes
George M. Phyfer 1998 Judy C. Anderson Dennis S. Avery
Bobbie L. Huskey 1997 Kathleen M. Hawk David M. Parrish
T.A. Ryan 1996 Lee Roy Black, Ed.D. W. Hardy Rauch
Samuel F. Saxton 1995 Robert Brown Jr. W. Raymond Nelson
Donald M. Page 1994 Thomas A. Coughlin III Parker Evatt
Michael J. Mahoney
Victoria C. Myers 1993 The Honorable Helen G. Corrothers Gail D. Hughes
Morris L. Thigpen 1992 Joseph R. Rowan Harry K. Singletary Jr.
Edward F. Tripp 1991 Sidney J. Folse Anthony P. Travisono
Diana N. Travisono
Donald R. Yeomans 1990 Donald G. Evans Ronald G. Jackson
Ruth L. Rushen 1989 Su Cunningham Gary Hill
Robert Watson 1988 David C. Evans James D. Henderson
Linda D’Amario Rossi 1987 T. Don Hutto Perry Johnson 1986 Albert Elias J. Bryan Riley
Ernest D. Wright 1985 Bennett J. Cooper Vernon G. Housewright
Joann B. Morton, Ph.D.
Carl Robinson 1984 Norman F. Chamberlain Lane Murray, Ph.D.
C. Winston Tanksley 1983 John J. Moran Amos E. Reed
Paul A. Skelton Jr. 1982 John W. Braithwaite Marcella C. Rapp
Samuel Sublett Jr. 1981 Norman A. Carlson Joseph S. Coughlin
William D. Leeke
Robert E. Rodli 1980 Donald D. Brewer George G. Killinger, Ph.D.
Peter P. Lejins, Ph.D. 1979 Anthony S. Kuharich Ellis C. MacDougall
Rev. Winfred C. Ollenburg
Ross V. Randolph 1978 John Burke Henry J. Mascarello
Lt. Col. Harry W. Poole 1977 W. James Estelle Jr. Thomas J. Mangogna
Martha E. Wheeler 1976 Allen F. Breed Herman G. Moeller
Louie L. Wainwright 1975 Walter Dunbar Albert G. Fraser
John A. Gavin 1974 Wayne K. Patterson E. Preston Sharp, Ph.D., and Catherine Simons Sharp
Maurice H. Sigler 1973 Edward W. Grout Parker L. Hancock
Russell G. Oswald 1972 George J. Beto, Ph.D. Charles P. Chew
Fred T. Wilkinson 1971 Myrl E. Alexander Sanger B. Powers
Joseph E. Ragen 1970 Arthur T. Prasse Harry C. Tinsley
Roberts J. Wright 1969 William T. Coulter James A. McLaughlin
Gilbert Rodli 1968 Reed Cozart Lt. Col. Carl R. Dueill
Gen. John F. McMahon 1967 William H. Bannan J. P. Shalloo, Ph.D.
W. Frank Smith Jr. 1966 Fred R. Dickson Marion H. Vedder 1965 Garrett Heyns, Ph.D. Austin H. MacCormick
Leon T. Stern 1964 Sanford Bates James V. Bennett
Norman Fenton, Ph.D. 1963 Edna Mahan Richard A. Mcgee
G. Howland Shaw
Executives Executive director: Robert Green Deputy executive director: Jeffery Washington, Retired June 2025 President: Ricky Dixon, CBHC/CO/Adult President-elect: Tyrone Oliver Vice president: Bryan Collier Treasurer: Anthony O. Vann Board of governors representatives to the executive committee: Marina Cadreche and Latera Davis
Past presidents Joseph F. Scott (1900–?) – After serving as the warden of the Elmira state prison, Scott became the superintendent of prisons of the state of New York. In 1900, Scott was elected president of the ACA., predecessor National Prison Association.Colonel Joseph F. Scott dead, The New York Times, December 15, 1918. Retrieved 14 September 2015. Terrell Don Hutto (1984–2000) – While Hutto was president, the ACA, began to support the private prison system. Harold W. Clarke (2008–2010) – Clarke directed corrections in Nebraska, Washington State, Massachusetts, and was the director of corrections for the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2010 to 2023.About Harold W. Clarke . Commonwealth of Virginia. Retrieved 14 September 2015. Daron Hall (2011–2013) – The Sheriff of Davidson County, Tennessee, Hall previously managed a Brisbane, Australia, prison for the Corrections Corporation of America"Meet Gus Puryear, Bush's latest villainous nominee for a lifetime judgeship", Alternet, Silja Talvi, May 4, 2008. Retrieved 14 September 2015. Christopher B. Epps (2013–2014) – Known for improvements of the Mississippi State Penitentiary, reductions in the use of solitary confinement, and successful early release of more non-violent offenders under parole, Epps served as Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections for more than a decade and under three governors. In November 2014 he was indicted for eight federal charges of money laundering and taking $1.47 million in bribes and kickbacks from prison contractors and vendors; he resigned as A.C.A. president and Mississippi Commissioner of Corrections, pleaded guilty, and turned state's evidence. On May 25, 2017, Judge Henry Travillion Wingate gave him a federal prison sentence of 235 months (19.6 years). Wingate, who was 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."Former Mississippi Prison Chief Sentenced to Nearly 20 Years, U.S. News & World Report, Jeff Amy (AP), May 24, 2017. Retrieved 26 May 2017. By July 2017 Epps was serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, Seagoville in Seagoville, Texas. Mary L. Livers (2014–2015) Former Deputy Secretary (agency head) of the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice. Previously Deputy Secretary for Operations of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Dr. Lannette C. Linthicum (2017-2019) Director Texas Department of Criminal Justice Health Services Division Gary C. Mohr (2019-2021) Director Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, 2010-2018 Tony C. Parker (2021-2023) Commissioner Tennessee Department of Corrections 2016-2021 Denise M. Robinson (2023-2025) President and CEO of Alvis, Inc. 2005–Present
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?"
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.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.