American Correctional Association

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[24] These include: 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.

Irb Benjamin was charged with bribery of Epps in connection with the contractual drug and alcohol treatment his company provided to MDOC prisons.

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.

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.

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.

[36] Federal presiding Judge Wingate sentenced Benjmain to 70 months in prison, fined Benjamin $100,000, and ordered him to forfeit $260,782.

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.