MACONOCHIE’S EXPERIMENT: How one man’s extraordinary vision saved transported convicts from degradation and despair

Maconochie’s notions of ‘penal science’ rested on the beliefs that cruelty debases both victim and the society inflicting it, and that punishment for crime should not be vindictive but designed to strengthen a prisoner’s desire and capacity to observe social constraints. Criminal punishments of imprisonment should consist of task and not time sentences; instead of being sentenced to a fixed period of imprisonment, an offender should be sentenced to be imprisoned until he had performed an ascertainable period of labour, which should be measured by the number of ‘marks of commendation’ he earned, the scale of marks being devised to encourage habits of industry and frugality. A sentence should be served in progressive stages, one of which involved membership of a working party where each was held responsible for the conduct of the others. Cruel punishments and degrading conditions should not be imposed and convicts should not be deprived of self-respect. Illustrated. pp. vii,276 #020915 First edition