David J. Rothman

Norval Morris

Ranging from ancient times to the present, a survey of the evolution of the prison explores its relationship to the history of Western criminal law and offers a look at the social world of prisoners over the centuries

The Practice of Punishment in Western Society

The Oxford History of the Prison

In 1840, Alexander Maconochie, a privileged retired naval captain, became at his own request superintendent of two thousand twice-convicted prisoners on Norfolk Island, a thousand miles off the coast of Australia. In four years, Maconochie transformed what was one of the most brutal convict settlements in history into a controlled, stable, and productive environment that achieved such success that upon release his prisoners came to be called "Maconochie's Gentlemen". Here Norval Morris, one of our most renowned criminologists, offers a highly inventive and engaging account of this early pioneer in penal reform, enhancing Maconochie's life story with a trenchant policy twist. Maconochie's life and efforts on Norfolk Island, Morris shows, provide a model with profound relevance to the running of correctional institutions today. Using a unique combination of fictionalized history and critical commentary, Morris gives this work a powerful policy impact lacking in most standard academic accounts. In an era of "mass incarceration" that rivals that of the settlement of Australia, Morris injects the question of humane treatment back into the debate over prison reform. Maconochie and his "Marks system" played an influential role in the development of prisons; but for the last thirty years prison reform has been dominated by punitive and retributive sentiments, the conventional wisdom holding that we need 'supermax' prisons to control the 'worst of the worst' in solitary and harsh conditions. Norval Morris argues to the contrary, holding up the example of Alexander Maconochie as a clear-cut alternative to the "living hell" of prison systems today.

The Story of Norfolk Island and the Roots of Modern Prison Reform

Maconochie's Gentlemen

Discusses the criminal responsibility of the mentally ill, looks at involuntary conduct, and argues that mental illness should affect sentencing, but not determine guilt or innocence

Madness and the Criminal Law

John G. Roberts

Analyses the development of the first US federal prisons; the role of women in federal corrections; inmate rights, classification and rehabilitation programmes; prison administration and management; and the famous super-maximum security penitentiaries at Alcatraz and Marion.

Norval Morris

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