The Alexander Maconochie Centre is an Australian prison in the Australian Capital Territory, which detains maximum security, minimum security and remand inmates, both male and female. It is located in Hume, Australian Capital Territory. The facility is operated by ACT Corrective Services, an agency of the Government of the Australian Capital Territory. The facility accepts remandees charged under Territory and/or Commonwealth legislation pending legal proceedings; and also detains convicted offenders who are sentenced to full-time imprisonment.

The centre is named in honour of penal reformer Alexander Maconochie, who worked in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) and Norfolk Island from 1836 to 1844,^[3] and is the Territory's first prison.

The ACT opened its first prison, Belconnen Remand Facility, in 1975. It was designed to only house 18 prisoners, and was quickly overcrowded and criticised for not having suitable education facilities. By 2001, its operational capacity had been increased to 69.^[4] Belconnen only housed unsentenced prisoners, and those convicted were transferred to prisons in NSW and were managed by Corrective Services NSW on behalf of the Territory and/or Commonwealth governments. In 2004, in spite of localised opposition,^[5][6] a decision was made to locate the new prison, a first for the ACT, in Hume. The centre was officially opened on 11 September 2008 by the Chief Minister of the ACT, Jon Stanhope. and constructed at a cost of A$130 million.^[7] The first prisoners were accepted on 30 March 2009.^[8]

The centre was designed as a multi-role facility that replaced the Belconnen Remand Centre and provides full-time detention facilities so that prisoners who would previously have been held in New South Wales correctional facilities may be held locally. Accommodation includes cell-blocks, domestic style cottages, a medical centre and crisis support unit, a 14-bed management unit and a transitional release centre. Male, female, remand and sentenced detainees from low to high security classifications are accommodated.^[1] The idea is to reform prisoners, so that they can return to a normal life after their sentence is over.

It is the first prison in Australia that was purpose built to meet human rights obligations.^[7] The centre was designed with environmental principles in mind and includes initiatives such as below ground fresh water storage, grey water recycling for toilet flushing and irrigation, solar hot water and high grade building insulation. The prison can hold 300 prisoners. It is organised as a campus, with accommodation cottages around a town square that contains common facilities. There is a health building, admissions building, education building, a library and a visiting centre. The prisoners are expected to construct their own gymnasium. It is located on the Monaro Highway in Hume.^[1]

• David Eastman^[12] – spent time at the Alexander Maconochie Centre during the final part of his wrongful imprisonment for the murder of Colin Winchester, Assistant Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police.
• Witness J, an unknown former Australian intelligence officer, was held in secret at the Alexander Maconochie Centre before his clandestine trial.^[13]

• List of Australian prisons

• "Inquiry into the delay in the commencement of operations at the Alexander Maconochie Centre" (PDF). Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety. 3. ACT Government. November 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2012.