American Correctional Association

American Correctional Association logo

The American Correctional Association (ACA), formerly known as the National Prison Association, is the oldest and largest international correctional association in the world. Approximately 80 percent of all 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. ACA accredits over 900 prisons, jails, community residential centers (halfway houses) and various other corrections facilities in the U.S. using their independently published Standards manuals.

History

The ACA was originally founded under the name National Prison Association in 1870. The name was officially changed in 1954 with hopes of having a name that more accurately reflected the organization's philosophy on corrections.[1] In 2011 ACA began to branch out and the first detention facilities outside of the U.S. or Canada were audited. In January 2012 four Mexican facilities became accredited by ACA using their Core International Standards manual.[2]

According to their website ACA currently has more than 5,000 members.[3]

Conferences

ACA hosts bi-annual conferences every year in different cities around the U.S. The first conference is the "ACA Winter Conference" with the year included in the title before ACA. Summer months play host to ACA's second conference of the year, the Congress of Correction. 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.

Leadership

Executive Offices

JAMES A GONDLES, JR, Executive Director: - After serving as the sheriff of Arlington, Virginia, James A. Gondles, Jr. became the Executive Director of ACA in 1990. Gondles has a long history of mistreating staff he is charged with overseeing, dating back to his days as Sheriff of Arlington County. He 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.[4] Gondles invited a myriad of lawsuits against himself and the county as a result of his mistreatment of staff. 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. The acts included bullying his top aides and bragging about having sex with female deputies. Earlier in the same year, he settled out of court for 25,000 dollars and publicly apologized after his deputy Debora Mulvey accused him of sexual harassment.[5]

Financial records show that the average ACA employee is paid $33,000/year (well under the living wage for the Washington, DC area) but he himself is paid about $350,000 annually plus an additional $70,000 of "other" income and benefits.[6]

JEFFREY WASHINGTON, Deputy Executive Director [7] - Jeff Washington serves as the Deputy Executive Director at ACA. Financial reporting records show his annual salary was $120,000 plus an additional $30,000 in perks in 2012.[8]

Executive Committee

Current President: Mary L Livers

Vice President: Michael Wade

Treasurer: Gary C Mohr

Board of Governors

Board of Governors Representatives to the Executive Committee:

Members:

  • Raul S. Banasco, CPM, CJM, CCE, MPA
  • Patricia Barnes-Goodwyn
  • Kim B. Barnette
  • Michael Dempsey
  • Kathleen G Gerbing
  • Gail M. Heller, LISW
  • Reginald D. Hines
  • Robert D Jones, M.D.
  • Kenneth Lassiter
  • Jenny Nimer
  • Brian J. Patrick, CCE
  • Allen L Peaton, CCE
  • Denise M Robinson
  • Robert Rosenbloom
  • David L. Thomas, MD
  • Tony Wilkes
  • Terri Williams

Controversies

With a scathing attack on the methods, motives and integrity of the Commission on Accreditation for Corrections, Judge David L. Bazelon, resigned from the ACA in 1982. Bazelon had publicly disagreed with the 21-member group's policies of secrecy and confidentiality. The commission is the sole national organization that inspects and accredits adult and juvenile prisons, jails and other corrections facilities. Accreditation helps such institutions respond to legal challenges and other criticism from public interest groups and prisoners' rights associations. In his 21-page "memorandum of resignation" he said his "...unsuccessful efforts to persuade the commission to open its fact-finding and decision-making processes to public participation and scrutiny" were a primary reason for his resignation. "Although it has taken a few tentative steps in the right direction, the commission has repeatedly refused to take meaningful steps to guarantee its independence and to insure the integrity of its decisions," said Bazelon, the 72-year-old, senior judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The judge, a determined protector of civil liberties, had three years remaining in his five-year term. He said the commission was flawed by "unreliable investigatory practices and unsound deliberative procedures," charging that the commission's organizational and financial ties to corrections agencies, operators and facilities raised "numerous...and pervasive conflicts of interest," and, as a result of such "... secrecy, shoddy procedures, resistance to reform and flawed priorities - the commission's noble promises have been subverted and its accreditation awards have become meaningless." "Time and time again I have seen or heard of instances in which corrections officials have used the commission for their own needs," he added. "They have used it to deflect public criticism and scrutiny of their management, to boost their standing with governors and legislators, to ward off judges and lawsuits and to pat themselves on the back. They have used it to paper over crises in corrections with certificates of 'excellence.' They have used it, in short, for their own propaganda needs." He remarked that if the other commissioners did not adapt, "this country will have lost one of the last, best hopes for reforming the human wasteland that is our prison system." An institution seeking accreditation analyzes its performance to determine how it complies to national standards developed by the ACA. These standards include sanitation, food service, medical care and work programs among other things. Judge Bazelon expressed dismay over learning that the public was "...systematically excluded from every stage of the commission's work," and that public comment was not solicited in developing the accreditation standards, that the applications and self-evaluations of the institutions were kept confidential and that the on-site investigations failed to include sufficient efforts to elicit information from sources other than the facility applying for accreditation. He said the commission's deliberations were secret and the results of its evaluations on how an institution was complying with standards were not publicized. Members have argued that institutions would resist meeting accreditation standards if deficiencies were made public; that some improvement is better than none. They also said that only correctional professionals can make objective assessments of institutions. Unsatisfactory conditions acknowledged by an facility in a self-evaluation could become grounds for a lawsuit against it or its governing agency. Judge Bazelon insisted that secrecy had led to such incidents as the commission's voting to waive the requirement that Florida comply with a number of standards after Louie Wainwright, the Florida Secretary of Corrections, a strong friend of the accreditation commission, was allowed to make an unusual appearance before the group in a closed session. Bazelon also said the audit team which inspected the Illinois Menard Correctional Facility failed to contact the Federal jurist who had found conditions at the institution to be unconstitutional nor did it talk to the special master appointed by that case judge to oversee improvements the court had dictated. Bazelon shared concerns that the commission depended for financial survival on fees paid by applicants, asking, "How can the commission in good conscience represent itself as 'independent' and 'unbiased' while being financially dependent on the objects of its scrutiny?"[9]

Past Presidents

See also

References

  1. ↑ "ACA History". American Correctional Association. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  2. ↑ "Accreditation of the Mexico Federal Prison System: utilizing core international standards".
  3. ↑ "Past, Present and Future". Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  4. ↑ "PIERSON v. GONDLES". Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  5. ↑ "Officers at the American Correctional Association".
  6. ↑ http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2012/131/977/2012-131977456-09924f4d-9.pdf
  7. ↑ "Contact Us".
  8. ↑ http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2013/131/977/2013-131977456-0ab4d4b5-9.pdf
  9. ↑ judge-quits-panel-on-prison-ratings.html Judge quits panel on prison ratings, New York Times, Wendell Rawls, Jr., August 8, 1982. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  10. ↑ Colonel Joseph F. Scott dead, New York Times, December 15, 1918. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  11. ↑ "2014 E.R. Cass Awards". American Correctional Association. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  12. ↑ About Harold W. Clarke. Commonwealth of Virginia. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  13. ↑ Meet Gus Puryear, Bush's latest villainous nominee for a lifetime judgeship, Alternet, Silja Talvi, May 4, 2008. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  14. ↑ Ex-prison chief's co-defendant wants to withdraw guilty plea, Jackson Free Press, Jeff Amy (AP), April 11, 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  15. 1 2 "The Prison Reform Blues". Buzzfeed News. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  16. ↑ Christopher Epps, former chief of prisons in Mississippi, is arraigned, New York Times, Timothy Williams, November 6, 2014. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
  17. ↑ Epps' Sentencing delayed, The Clarion-Ledger, Jimmie E. Gates, June 8, 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2015.

External links

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