Norfolk Island, a small patch of land off the coast of Australia, uninhabited until discovered by Captain Cook, was once the site of a notorious prison. Using four fictionalized voices, law professor Norval Morris describes the techniques and experiments of superintendent Alexander Maconochie, who transformed it from a chaotic colony of murderers and thieves into an efficient and uncommonly humane place of penal reform. For the rare traveler to Norfolk Island (and for those who loved Hughes's "The Fatal Shore") this is a fascinating narrative history.  (PAC119, $19.95)