Enoch Cobb Wines, who lived from 1806 to 1879, was an American Congregational minister and prison reform advocate who served as a pastor in Vermont and Long Island before becoming a professor of languages at Washington College in Pennsylvania in 1853 and president of St. Louis University in 1859. From 1862 he served as secretary of the New York Prison Association and later the National Prison Association, and his most significant achievement came in 1871 to 1872 when he organized the first international congress on prison discipline in London, establishing him as a founding figure in international penal reform.
Facts
Defining ContributionBecame secretary of the Prison Association of New York in 1861 and led prison reform advocacy 1 Notable WorkReport on the Prisons and Reformatories of the United States and Canada (1867) 1 Connections
Informed
Enoch Cobb Wines organized the 1870 Cincinnati National Congress on Penitentiary and Reformatory Discipline, whose Declaration of Principles put offender reformation, not punishment alone, at the center of the American prison-reform movement; spot-verified live via web search 2026-09-04.
Sources
1. Wines, Enoch Cobb - The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. (Encyclopedia.com)
full entry text
Enoch Cobb Wines, 1806-79, American clergyman and prison reformer, b. Hanover, N.J.
Career summary, paragraph 1
After a varied career as a schoolmaster and preacher he became (1861) secretary of the Prison Association of New York and began his most important work.
Notable publication, paragraph 1
His noted Report on the Prisons and Reformatories of the United States and Canada (1867) was partly responsible for the wave of prison reform in the 19th cent.
View the Source2. Wikidata: Enoch Cobb Wines
Wikidata Q5379279, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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