Who is the father of parole?

• A. Alexander Maconochie
• B. Zebulon Brockway
• C. Dorothea Dix
• D. Bentham

Answer: (A)

Alexander Maconochie is credited with introducing the idea of releasing prisoners before full sentence completion and supervising them in the community. He developed the mark system and the concept of a ticket of leave, where inmates earned marks to reduce their time and were released in stages under supervision. This approach established the practical framework for parole as conditional early release tied to ongoing monitoring and rehabilitation. His experiments, including work on Portsmouth and later Norfolk Island, showed that supervised reintegration could improve outcomes, shaping parole practices that followed elsewhere. While other reformers contributed important ideas—such as Brockway’s work on indeterminate sentences in the United States, or Dix’s advocacy for humane treatment, and Bentham’s broader philosophical contributions—the development and demonstration of conditional, supervised release trace back to Maconochie.