Alec retired from a career in the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) in March 2006, having served as Governor of Dungavel, Peterhead, Edinburgh and Glenochil prisons prior to being appointed to the SPS Board as Director of Rehabilitation and Care in 2001. He was responsible for the development of policy and services in relation to rehabilitation and care of offenders, particularly in the areas of offender programmes and interventions (including sex offenders), psychological services, risk and needs assessments, sentence management, education, skills and employability, vocational training, industrial work, social work, chaplaincy and families, addictions services, healthcare services, mental health, social inclusion and resettlement, and partnerships, research and analytical services. He was also an Independent External Member of the SPS Risk Monitoring and Audit Committee.

During his time in SPS he led the development of programmes for sex offenders at Peterhead prison; at Edinburgh prison he developed the first 'Throughcare' or 'Links' Centre, and managed to build a Visitors Centre with funds given by a charity. He also developed, what has become, the national offender outcomes.

He has spoken at, and chaired, a number of criminal justice/prison/sex offender conferences and events in Scotland and further afield.

In July 2005 Alec was appointed as an Honorary Professor [Criminology and Criminal Justice], in the Department of Applied Social Science, University of Stirling, and is an Associate Member, Criminology and Criminal Justice Research Group, linked with the Scottish Centre for Criminal Justice Research. He has published a book about working with sex offenders. He has been a Member of the Expert Group on Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking – Victims of Violence and Abuse Prevention Programme [Department of Health, National Institute for Mental Health in England and the Home Office] (2005-2008).

Alec was appointed as Chair of the Scottish Accreditation Panel for Offender Programmes (2006-2010). www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/public-safety/offender-management/community/16910/14735 He was also a member (Vice-Chair) of the National Support Team established to support change in the offender management system (October 2005 to October 2007).

He was co-founder and Chair of the Scottish Forum on Prison and Families (1990-2000), now Families Outside www.familiesoutside.org.uk . He was Vice Chair and Chair of Includem (2001-2010), www.includem.org a charity providing services to some of the most troubled and challenging young people in Scotland.

He is a member of the Scottish Consortium on Crime and Criminal Justice and in September 2009 was appointed their Convener. http://www.scccj.org.uk   He was Chairman of the Scottish Association for the Study of Offending (2006-2011), and is currently an Honorary Vice-President of SASO. www.sastudyoffending.org.uk

In 2006 he was appointed an Assessor, working for the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland, now part of the Commission for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland. www.publicappointments.org 

During 2010 he was appointed temporary Chief Officer for Tayside Community Justice Authority (CJA).

In September 2006 he was appointed as the Adviser to the Scottish Parliament, Justice 2 Sub-Committee Inquiry into the “ Justice System (Child-Sex Offenders) ”: an inquiry into issues concerning the monitoring, housing and disposal by the Courts (including sentencing) of sex offenders against children. http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/justice2sub/reports-06/j2subr06-01-00.htm