SOCIAL PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 42, 18 August 1939, Page 15

SOCIAL PROBLEM

BORSTAL INMATES

LACK OF EARLY TRAINING

All of the 39 persons who escaped from prison last year were recaptured, states the Controllei'-General of Prisons (Mr. B. L. Dallard) in his report for 1938. which has been presented to Parliament. Twenty-two of the escapees were from Borstal. "Under a system in which trust is an essential element a certain number of escapees is inevitable, but the number of escapes last year was slightly higher than the average,1' says Mr. Dallard. "This was due to the misguided activities of a small intractable group of persistent escapees at the Invercargill Borstal These lads on reception were entirely undisciplined and anti-social in their outlook, and were quite unresponsive to any socialising influences. From th«. outset they evinced no interest in anything but their plans to escape. It was ultimately found necessary, in the interests of the peaceful and ordered management of the institution, to separate this group and transfer the inmates to other prison farms. WARPED MENTAL OUTLOOK. "The superintendent of the Borstal states that many of those now finding themselves committed to Borstal show a lamentable .lack of early training and discipline. '. .With a larg number of young .offenders it is manifest their offences are due to adverse circumstances or to moral blindness and not to original sin, but with.many recently received at Borstal their early environmental influences, appear to have been so unfortunate and inimical to their moral well-being that they have developed an entirely warped mental outlook in which any worth-while idealism finds no place. These cases not only constitute a complex problem from an institutional point of view, but they also present a grave social problem. Whilst many of these young offenders are to be pitied rather than blamed for their anti-social attitude for the reason already indicated that often they have not had much chance in life, it is not in their best interests to humour them or to encourage self-pity, or to induce an idea of mental invalidism. What is more to be desired is an awakening of a consciousness of social obligations. The Borstal endeavours to do its part by. subjecting them to a firm discipline that does not cramp 'self-reliance and initiative, but the root of the problem lies at an earlier stage. "The fact that- only .15 per cent, of j those who pass through the Borstal again appear before the Courts is in itself fairly eloquent testimony of the | efficacy, of the methods, employed at Borstal in an endeavour to deflect these young people from criminal careers to ways of useful citizenship, but-how much better it would be if character training commenced before they reached Borstal."