Effectiveness Of Borstal System Examined

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31975, 30 April 1969, Page 10

Effectiveness Of Borstal System Examined

(Specially written for "The Press" by the Rev.

G. L. SWEET.

for seven years a chaplain of the Department of Justice)

Any borstal training scheme, to be effective, must not only provide the facilities and the tools for rehabilitation; it must also provide the moti* vation for trainees so that they want to be rehabilitated, so that they want to be normal and ordinary citizens. A boy must be changed so that he wants to reform.

When the success or failure of the Borstal system is examined it can be seen that the lack of motivation to reform has been the basic defect. It still is. A quick look at the history of Borstal training highlights this fact.

Initially it was designed to contain serious young offenders and by a rigorous training and work programme to produce reformed citizens. This was done in an institution (which in New Zealand was in a prison-like building), in which offenders were isolated for two to five years (later up to two years). The pain of isolation was designed as a motivation to reform albeit a negative one. It did not work simply because after the terrible first week of the hell of being locked up for the first time, one learns to shut off the reality and it loses its fear and deterrent motivational value. Also it had the side effect of isolating the trainee from family, friends and job: and in the system’s early years, from the reformative qualities of society. A frightening side effect has been noted by the chief probation officer. Maori youths | ;who feel at home in a community life readily and rapidly adapt to the community of the imprisoned. Harsh Treatment Co-existing with isolation was severe punishment and hard treatment. This philosophy is the same that still appears in letters to the newspapers requesting that we. “give them a taste of their; own medicine and they won’t’ come back.” They were moti-l vated by this aliright! On re-' lease there was violent and often vicious animosity to the whole world and the brutal treatment resulted in (and still does) a quicker return to the institution. When it was seen that a! vigorous “outward bounding”’ did not work other approaches! had to be tried. The rigorous! routine which is a fine complement to the training of I youngsters already motivated! toward good citizenship failed because the trainees simply: were not willing at heart to change and did the training! with reluctance. So as the! failure of negative sanctions! to bring about the desire fori change became obvious thoughts were given to posi-i tive reformative influences; and a new period, much heralded for its enlighten-! ment and hope began. Trade Training was ushered in with fanfares. Now every boy could be given some skills in carpentry, farming, engineering, paperhanging or plumbing, and he would bei “right’’ on release. The fact! is that few boys ever take up their trades on release. They are not motivated to do so. they have not the desire to j conform to society’s norms !and behaviour patterns. To join the “squares" would be a rejection of the only value system (and security) they know. Trade-training failed to work the oracle. They still came back.

Education Failed Came education, the new hope. Teachers were added to the staffs and proclaimed as the people with the panacea. Education would fit these school drop-outs for a better chance in society. It did not work. It could not, because the trainees were not motivated to use the new knowledge. They did not, and even more important, could not want to change. Psychologists and chaplains were appointed, men whose sphere of reference was motivational. Surely now Borstal training would move forward with the insights of these men. It did not. Chaplains. and psychologists in particular, were so few in number and so out of harmony with the whole orientation of the system that they could make little impression. They found themselves not only having to overcome inmate suspicion but also staff antipathy and ignorance of their roles. It became common for the staff and inmate, to form an unspoken, though in times of real stress, outspoken. alliance against the “headshrinker” and the “skypilot.” The psychologists in-' traduced many motivational aids of which individual and: group therapy have been! most notable, but for both! the psychologist and the I chaplain the battle against' the system and its attitudes! was too much.

“Battle For The Mind”

We could well end this historical resume with a quotation from the recent Department of Justice publication “Review of Borstal Policy in New Zealand”: “In spite of the beneficial effect of Borstal training, many youths have subsequently re-offen-ded”: and “Most Borstal training has ignored the basic fact that the battle for recovery Is a battle for the mind. Youths are not changed merely because of a training programme, and mechanical con-

formists are not rehabilitated offenders.” Why could not the system succeed? First, the environment of detention was against success. These were bars, cells, regimentation and the routine demanded for the too great numbers: men in uniforms just like those of the (hated) police—uniformed officers, not people, but impersonal officers who were held in the “we-they” mould |by their uniforms. Many staff joined the service because they fitted this role, men who could not have become, nor comprehended the idea of. correctional officers. Coupled with this is the great force against a positive motivation, the pressure of the peer group which in New Zealand Borstals is a very large peer group. To turn again to the departmental publication, “The persistent offenders in the Borstal population influence each other in a detrimental way, pulling against positive teaching and training. Their mutual con-! tamination tends to impede institutional treatment and is! a factor in the high rate of reoffending following release.” Strong Influence Thus any trainee making a positive shift in attitudes imust do so at great risk, including physical risk. He must put himself offside with the only friends he has in| this isolated setting. Here! he cannot choose friends and risks great loneliness to go! against the vocally propounded norms of the peer group.! It takes a mature man to go against his peers, and when one knows the common background of these lads of intense insecurity from childhood, one sees quite clearly how impossible it is for trainees to move in attitudes, no matter how much they are inwardly motivated. To these negative factors must be added the hopelessness of imprisonment. Imprisonment is quite antithe-j tical to rehabilitation. You cannot have one if you have the other. Imprisonment ‘ means treatment in a vacuum. A lad is taken away from all the pressures and problems! that contributed to his offending. With the pressures removed the atmosphere is sterile, a vacuum. How does one measure his needs, bis progress, or assess his insights into causes and tensions. It is a great folly to isolate from real-life situations any other than the recalcitrant few who must be restrained. From my experience this would not constitute as many as 3 per cent of the total Borstal population.

Reasons For Failure

To sum up then, the key Ito judging the effectiveness of any Borstal system is in lits ability to aid motivation. From beginnings in harsh isolationist concepts through trade skills and education to the employment of men concerned primarily with motivation. Borstal has failed to be a rehabilitative community i because motivational pressures have been imposed from without and the trainees have found neither the environment, staff attitudes nor peer group pressures directed at encouraging them to make the changes. We must now ask what sort of a unit would allow the optimum in personal, “internalised" motivation and be : able to rush up support for !any trainee who was so motiivated. Some of the factors will be obvious from the assessment above.

First the unit must be a small one so that peer-group pressure is minimised and becomes a tightly controlled variable. Ideally this unit will be modelled on a home situation and consist of a family, say six trainees who are free to relate to job, gang and kin with all the attendant pressures and be able to return to the “home" to test progress, gain insights into behaviour and to strengthen motivation. This means of course that the unit must be in the offenders’ home town. It will be expensive because it will be staffed by psychotherapeutically oriented people and social workers, not custodians or disciplinar-j ians: neople skilled in under- 1 standing deviant behaviour' and its causes, and the im-' portance of acceptance, understanding and self-respect. I

Correct Atmosphere

1 The Department of Justice has taken the preliminary I steps in this direction. Perio-' i die detention centres, prerelease hostels and release to work schemes are indications: of an appreciation of the need to put people in an atmosphere that will encour-' age change. Three institutions are now I planned. They are designed toi hold 60 trainees. My opinion! is that this is far above the ! optimum number for success. We should note the opinion of Lord Amory, chairman of! the Royal Commission on! Penal Reform. 1964-1966: “The smaller the institution: the better.” I am aware that it is hoped to have smaller teams within the larger group, but it does seem that these institutions will be too ! large to meet the criteria of;

motivating communities. The reports says: “They will be run by dedicated imaginative people who can organise a vital programme. We seek exceptional characters." Can we ask if they will be chosen from prison and Borstal staff or social workers and therapists? Pay for the least of these if they are to he the “exceptional characters,” will need to be about that of a top grade superintendent. May we ask also if they will be under penal acts and regulations, or free to find the best milieu of control of motivation? Enigmatic Policy There remains some quality of enigma about the departmental policy. Invercargill Borstal has year by year got new, expensive and permanent plant that gives the impression that the gradual disbanding of that institution and the inadequate philosophy it represents is neither imminent nor even within !the foreseeable future. Despite all the criticisms raised above one must say that the whole tenor of the report gives great encouragement to all concerned with the rehabilitation of the offender. The department deserves full public support and interest in this attempt to do more than hold and hurt. We, the public must ; now examine our motives, i What do we want? Do we! want offenders hurt and iso-! !lated? If so the present sys- ' tem is a huge success. This I viewpoint fails to consider i the vital point that one day ! the inmate has to be released. What sort of a person will | j he be? A young man who is i i bitter, more confused than : jever, more than ever convin-| ced that he has no place in society (we will have made! this very plain to him) and therefore more likely than ever to go on from his first! taste of Borstal training to a.

■ life of crime and imprisonment. This does not make • sense. Case For A Change , While the offender is being' controlled our whole re-! . sources must be turned to-: , ward his rehabilitation, so , that finally as a normal citizen he can hold his head up and , take his place again in so- ■_ ciety. Pessimistically, I can . think of no type of institution where this can happen with ‘ any very great degree of sue- ' cess; but the change from a penal institution which reinforces guilt, resentment, in-1 security and isolation, to a therapeutic community which . encourages the desire to re- . spect oneself and others and . provides the materials for one • so motivated is certainly a . step in the right direction. . The report concludes: I “There is a strong case for i experimenting with a change . of approach. For far too long . we have been dominated by a i step by step approach to goodness.” All the philosophy of i the report is in the exciting terms of a very long jump. . The best one can say for the . recommendations is that they , are a big step. We the pub- . lie must give every encourage- . ment to any move in the direction of making the philosophy real.