Alexander Paterson

Sir Alexander Henry Paterson, who lived from 1884 to 1947, was a British penologist who served as a Prison Commissioner for England and Wales from 1922 to 1946. He became the driving force behind the development of the Borstal system for young offenders, introducing a house system in which small groups of delinquents lived under a dedicated housemaster with a program combining structured work, education and sport rather than ordinary imprisonment. His reforms gave Borstal training its lasting form and earned him an international reputation as a leading prison reformer, and he was knighted in 1947.