ABSTRACT
Austin Harbutt MacCormick, the son of a Presbyterian minister, author, college professor, college administrator, consultant, and warden, was a pioneer in correctional reform for over fifty years. MacCormick, described in one newspaper as “almost frail looking” but a “bundle of nervous energy,” was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1893 and moved to the United States with his parents later that year. He graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in 1915. His graduation essay focused on prison reform and was heavily influenced by the eminent penologist Thomas Mott Osborne.
