Sir Alexander Henry Paterson MC (20 November 1884 – 7 November 1947), known to his friends as Alec Paterson, was a British penologist who, as Commissioner of Prisons, introduced reforms that would provide a humane regime in penal institutions and encourage rehabilitation among inmates. He was the main force behind the development of

Borstal A Borstal was a type of youth detention centre in the United Kingdom, several member states of the Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland. In India, such a detention centre is known as a Borstal school. Borstals were run by HM Prison Service ...

s and gained an international reputation as a great prison reformer. Sir Alexander Paterson quote in stone

Paterson was born in Bowdon, near

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population ...

, Cheshire. His parents were staunch Unitarians and staunch Liberals, his father being the young churchill's electoral agent. Smith, C. (2004, September 23). Paterson, Sir Alexander Henry (1884–1947), penal reformer and prison commissioner. ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Retrieved 20 Jul. 2019
/ref> He attended Bowdon College, the local private school for boys, and later studied at

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...

where he obtained an honours degree in Greats. Among his close friends were the future Prime Minister, Clement Atlee, the future Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, and Barclay Baron
infed.org article on Sir Alexander Paterson
/ref> During his time at Oxford, he may have become an Anglican although he was not to be confirmed into the Church of England until 1908. Not long after he graduated, Paterson went to work with the Oxford Medical Mission, a Christian charity established by John Stansfeld ('the Doctor') which provided free medical treatment for the locals and ran youth clubs for underprivileged boys in

Bermondsey Bermondsey () is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham ...

, South London. He worked as an unpaid teacher in an elementary school, and served as a voluntary probation officer. He was also appointed by the Home Secretary, Winston Churchill, as assistant director of the Central Association for the Aid of Discharged Convicts, and was also involved withe Borstal Association. He recounted his experiences in Bermondsey in his enormously successful and influential book, ''Across the Bridges'', published in 1911. Paterson served in the Bermondsey Battalion (the Queens) of the London Regiment during World War I, enlisting as a private but reaching the rank of Captain and receiving a

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC ...

. As a result of his close involvement in Talbot House during the Great War, he became the first chairman of the executive committee of charitable orgasnisation that grew out of it

Toc H Toc H (also TH) is an international Christian movement. The name is an abbreviation for Talbot House, "Toc" signifying the letter T in the signals spelling alphabet used by the British Army in World War I. A soldiers' rest and recreation centre ...

. In 1922, he was appointed Commissioner of Prisons and Director of Convict Prisons, a position he held until his retirement in 1946. During his period as Commissioner of Prisons, Paterson used

Wakefield Prison His Majesty's Prison Wakefield is a Category A men's prison in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. The prison has been nicknamed the "Monster Mansion" due to the large number of high-profile, high-risk ...

as a testing ground for his reforms, such as establishing a farm within the prison in which inmates could learn agricultural skills. Prisoners were also allowed to earn small sums working, attend training courses and participate in games. In his view, the security of a prison's system was very important but it should not be dehumanizing. Among his initiatives to improve the prison system, he pointed out the problem of isolating prisoners, imposing the use of

prison uniform A prison uniform is the standardized clothes worn by prisoners. It usually includes visually distinct clothes worn to indicate the wearer is a prisoner, in clear distinction from civil clothing. A prison uniform serves the purpose to make prison ...

s, and not monitoring prisoners after their release.Sir Alexander Paterson (1951). Paterson on Prisons: Being the Collected Papers of Sir Alexander Paterson. F. Muller, p. 26 In his views, the prison system should not dehumanize: During his long tenure he became the foremost authority on prisons in the world, visited many countries throughout the Empire and beyond to advise on penal matters, and was an expert witness before many parliamentary and departmental committees. In 1935 at the International Penal and Penitentiary Congress held in Berlin he led a successful attempt to thwart the Nazis hijacking the whole conference for propaganda purposes. During the Second World War, apart from visiting the West African colonies and war-blasted Malta, he was sent to Canada to sort the refugee sheep from the Nazi goats among the 'enemy alien' internees' sent there from Britain. His report on this issue is as a compassionate response as it is a searing indictment of their treatment, and, as with so many of his reports, immensely readable and hugely effective. Stricken with malaria and worn out by his exertions, he reluctantly retired at the end of 1946 from his post as Commissioner, although he was retained as a consultant by his colleagues. Paterson was knighted in 1947 and died shortly afterwards in London at the age of 62.

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