Mixed Borstals suggested

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32541, 26 February 1971, Page 10

Mixed Borstals suggested

Young men and women should be catered for together in New Zealand’s Borstals and detention centres, it was suggested in Christchurch yesterday.

Mr W. A. M. Black, who has spent six years with the Justice Department as a psychologist and is now lecturer in clinical psychology at the University of Canterbury, said that bringing young male and female offenders together was a more realistic way of teaching them and helping them towards an adjusted life in the community than the present segregated system. “Such a move would make the institutions a more normal set-up," Mr Black said. Units working on an integrated basis overseas had achieved a high rate of success, with a wide improvement in the range of detainees' behaviour. opposttion Integrated institutions would inevitably result in considerable opposition from the general public, Mr Black said.

"The Justice Department is in a vulnerable position, as the public feel that the department should merely be a punishing agency,” he said. “More thought should be given by the public to the fact that these young offenders must live in the community, and so rehabilitation is of paramount importance.”

The aim of Borstals and similar institutions should be to return young people to the community better—not worse—than when they were placed in custody.

"One of the things which is at present absurd is that everyone who goes to these institutions has shown himself or herself socially irresponsible and deprived—yet once they are in there, you get further deprivation and reduction of social responsibility,” Mr Black said. “Then the young offenders are expected to leave the institution socially responsible. Integrated institutions would overcome a lot of these problems.” MAORI OFFENDERS Speaking of young Maori offenders, Mr Black said that one of the problems in this field was the reluctance of older Maori people to assist the young Maori. “There is a need for a greater involvement on the part of young Maoris outside the institutions to assist those who have offended,” said Mr Biack. "One of the

appalling things with young Maoris leaving the instituttions is that they often have nowhere to go. Many become discouraged by the lack of interest from their nonoffending Maori friends, and so become discouraged and offend again.” The pressure of a welladjusted Maori “peer group” could be invaluable to a discharged offender.