Corrections_Today_Spring_2026_Vol.88_No.1

FROM THE ARCHIVES

By Myrl E. Alexander The American Correctional Association Centennial Commission in 1970 planned to reenact the 1870 Na tional Congress on Penal Reform. Commission member Martha Wheeler had written the script from the 1870 transcript. Casting was underway. I called Ed Cass to offer him the first choice to play any role he chose. Whom would he choose to play? “E.C. Wines, of course. Who else?” Who else, indeed! It was E.C. Wines who was respon sible for the 1870 Congress. He had labored for years to gain national support for that first Congress which he planned as a springboard for the first International Congress to be held in London in 1872. It was logical then that Ed Cass had to reenact the Wines role in 1970. Ed had picked up and continued the work of Wines in the Twentieth Century. For half a century, Ed Cass, following Wines’ lead had served as general secretary of both the Prison Association of New York and the American Prison Association. His life-long career had been in the footsteps of his great predecessor. Ed Cass was forever and aggressively faithful to the organizations which had been created and led by Wines. He maintained a fierce sense of relationship between the New York and the national associations. He forever proclaimed the “necessity” to maintain that relationship. When ultimately the ACA achieved independence and became a self-sufficient national organization, Ed had problems accepting the end of that great era of interdependence. But as the years passed and the independent ACA grew and flourished, Ed came to know that his work and devotion of half a century was neither ignored nor forgotten. The E.R. Cass Correctional Achievement Awards, granted annually in his name, is a perpetual memorial to his life’s work. As these words are written, I look at a photograph on the wall across from my desk. It is a 1970 picture of seven old-time ACA leaders made on the occasion of the

ranging from large groups within ACA, to national figures, to anyone who challenged his stronghold. Those days have gone but it was an era that called for determination and vision to hold the organiza tion together. It was a personal and wholly natural stance because, as all students of American penological history know, It was his illustrious predecessor, Dr. E.C. Wines, who served as general secretary of the Prison Association of New York in 1870, and conceived and developed the need for a national forum for corrections. The result was the formation in that year of the National Congress on Penitentiary and Reforma tory Discipline — now the American Correctional Association. From that time to 1963 the national and New York organizations were virtually one and the same — even to the staff wearing “two hats” administratively. Thus, the basis of Ed’s pride, even a proprietary aura, is understandable. At the time of his retirement in 1962, and in honor of his long years of service and personal dedication to ACA, his colleagues launched the “E.R. Cass Correctional Achievement Award,” now recognized as the most prestigious honor bestowed upon correctional professionals by their peers. Ed was a permanent member of the selection committee and frequently presided at the award ceremony. He was named as president emeritus of the American Correc tional Association, the only individual ever so honored. It was my personal privilege to have been associated with Ed Cass on a daily basis for 22 years, and I, too, have lost a good friend and mentor. An era has passed. As the memory of Edward R. Cass continues through the years to come, the present strength, vitality and audacity of the American Correctional Association will forever be a living memorial in his name.

Corrections Today | Spring 2026

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