Austin MacCormick

Austin H. MacCormick was an American criminologist and prison reformer, born April 20, 1893, and active until his death in 1979, who held posts including assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 1930, commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction from 1934 to 1940, and president of the American Correctional Association in 1939. His 1931 book The Education of Adult Prisoners, based on a nationwide 1928 survey of prison education, argued that academic, vocational, health, and cultural instruction were essential to rehabilitation and helped set the agenda for prison education programs nationally. He later taught criminology at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1951 to 1960, and led the Osborne Association, a prison reform advocacy group, until his death.