By Hans Toch

"The prisoner should hold the key to his own cell" is a well-known phrase coined by Captain Alexander Maconochie in the 1830s, before h e embarked for a historic assignment at the Norfolk Island colony, where he invented parole and established the world's very first prison incentive system. A subtitle of a recent book about Maconochie (Morris, 2002) alludes to "the roots of modern prison reform."

Pre-publication. Prison Service Journal. ND. 10p.