THE BORSTAL SYSTEM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21981, 16 June 1933, Page 7

THE BORSTAL SYSTEM

TO THE EDITOR. '• Sis, —In answer to' Miss Baughan’s question: (1) “Is it true that feebleminded boys are among the inmates of the Borstal at Invercargill ? ” the answer is yes. Miss Baughan also asks: (2) “Is there_ any psychological help at all, any examination of each boy by a psychologist capable of finding out his good points as well as his intelligence and sentiment development? ” The answer to the whole question is No. (3) “ Is there any Borstal after-care association, as in England or do the boys just pass out on ordinary probationary license to an ordinary probation officer?” There is no after-care association; the boys go out on ordinary probationary license. I believe they are put, straight away on a train and sent back to the place they came from. No one is appointed or asked to help them in any way. I am certain that if there were an after-care association of understanding people (not the sentimental type) to extend help and sympathy to these boy s it would make all the difference. The after-care in the English Borstal system is a very important part of the system. (4) "Has probation always been properly tried before the expense of a boy’s Borstal training is inflicted on the public? Does Mr Andrews-Baxter think that our courts send boys too readily to Invercargill, and that many would do well on (proper) probation? ” I think that very often boys are sent to the Borstal for too trivial offences. I think the reason for this is that the judges and stipendiary magistrates are under the impression that they are sending the boys to a glorified technical school. The boys go there thinking they are to be taught some useful trade. Instead, they go to prison and hard labour. What really happens is this; An adult would get three months for an offence against the law. Because the judge or magistrate thinks the Borstal is a Borstal, he sends a boy up for three years, whereas he is not going to a Borstal at all, but to a prison. Is it fair that a boy should get three years’ gaol for the offence for which an adult would get three months’ gaol? I say “ gaol ” for the Invercargill so-called Borstal is a gaol, and a cold, damp gaol at that, and the boys have to work outside in all weathers in their prison clothes. I think probation could be well extended to many of the boys. Neither the senior nor junior probation officer makes use of outside help in Invercargill. In Dunedin and other places I have often been asked to help in the case of a boy on probation. The very excellent senior probation officer in Dunedin realised what a very great help the Church could be to a boy, and often solicited the help of the church to which the boy belonged, and with beneficial results. The junior probation officer in Timaru did the same thing, but from my own experience no such, nelp has been asked in Invercargill. I am quite certain that if some of the senior and junior offenders on probation were brought under the notice and care 'of the Church they would not see either an industrial school or the Borstal. In Australia I was an honorary probation officer for years and boys were sent to me from Melbourne, whom I placed on farms and in other positions. I regularly visited them, and they me, and I remember only one case where a boy was brought before a magistrate again. Now, may I ask a question? What corporate and social life do the boys have after tea at the Invercargill Borstal? I am aware that concerts are sometimes given, and that there is a band; but is there a general corporate and social time after tea or are the boys locked in their cells? Are the boys, as a whole, allowed to mix freely in a. common room, read 1

books, play games? Or is a small proportion of the boys allowed this privilege while the rest are locked up in their cells? Boys need a corporate life, every one will admit, and if boys, after they have finished their- day’s work, are locked up .in cells it is denying them the corporate life that is so necessary & part, of their training. We must get the Borstals from under the Prisons Department. Then, perhaps, we shall get the Borstal system of management and not the prison system. The superintendent, were he ever so good, could not run the Invercargill as a Borstal while it is under the Prisons Department, and the majority of his assistants are warders. I ask once more that a full inquiry he made into the whole system and management so that both the public and the boys may get a fair deal.—l am, I'. K. D. Andeews-Baxteb. Invercargill, June 14. I