Alexander Maconochie (penal reformer)

Alexander Maconochie (11 February 1787 – 25 October 1860) was a Scottish naval officer, geographer and penal reformer.

This article is about the penal reformer. For the British judge, see Alexander Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank.

Alexander Maconochie
Born(1787-02-11)11 February 1787
Edinburgh, Scotland
Died25 October 1860(1860-10-25) (aged 73)
Morden, Surrey, England
Resting placeSt Lawrence Church, Morden, Surrey
51°23′32.1″N 0°12′15.11″W
OccupationNaval officer
Known forPenal reform in Australia and England
Military career
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchRoyal Navy
Years of service1803–1815
RankCaptain

In 1840, Maconochie became the Governor of Norfolk Island, a prison island in which convicts were treated with severe brutality and were seen as lost causes. Upon reaching the island, Maconochie immediately instituted policies that restored dignity to prisoners and achieved remarkable success in prisoner rehabilitation. Those policies were well in advance of their time, but Maconochie was politically undermined.

His ideas would be largely ignored and forgotten, only to be readopted as the basis of modern penal systems over a century later, during the mid-to-late 20th century. He was also the first professor of Geography at the University College London.

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