Alexander Maconochie (penal reformer), Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Alexander Maconochie (penal reformer)

British penal reformer

Date of Birth: 11-Feb-1787

Place of Birth: Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Date of Death: 25-Oct-1860

Profession: geographer

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

Alexander Maconochie (11 February 1787 – 25 October 1860) was a Scottish naval officer, geographer, and penal reformer. In 1840, Maconochie became the Governor of Norfolk Island, a prison island where 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, achieving remarkable success in prisoner rehabilitation.
These policies were well in advance of their time and 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 in the mid to late 20th century.