YOUNG CRIMINALS

Southland Times, Issue 19172, 16 February 1924, Page 6

YOUNG CRIMINALS

WORK OF REFORMATION. SUCCESS OF BORSTAL SYSTEM. Twenty-nine years ago a little group of manacled boys clattered in their irons into the Kentish village of Borstal and took up their quarters in the old convict prison, once used as an overflow from Chatham convict establishment. They were to be the subject of a unique experiment in prison reform. They were drawn from convict prisons all over England, where they had been herded with old and hardened convicts. They came to their new life contaminated, degraded, debased and brutalised. The •question which Sir Evelyn Ruggles Brise, Commissioner of Prisons, had set himself was this: “Is it possible, by a system of discipline, tempered by humane treatment, to get young criminals back into decent ways? Sir Evelyn had visited every penal establishment in the North American Continent, and it was during the survey that he inspected Elmira, New York, and saw the work done there by Dr. Brockway. That work fired his imagination. He modified the main ideas of the American prison reformer and started with few advantages, and with the toughest material,imaginable, to work the system in England. In this way was Borstal inaugurated. It has just been celebrating its majority, for it is years since those convicted youths Entered the grim prison which they were to labour to pull down, and which was the site of the modern, model reformatory known as Borstal, with its light and airy cells and dormitories, its great gardens, its workshops, gymnasium and swimming pool. THE OLD LAW. As the law stood in those days there was no alternative open for a judge who had before him a youth over 16 years of age convicted of a felony, but to send him to prison. This meant that another recidivist was added to the appalling number which then made it well nigh impossible for the authorities to find accommodation in the prisons of England for the criminal population. After the experiment had gone forward for six years, Parliament took cognisance of the work being done, and passed legislation authorising the committal of offenders between the ages of 16 and 21 to the Borstal Institute, which was then officially recognised. The whole idea of the founders of Borstal was to do away with the prison atmosphere, and aim at developing self-respect, reliance, and habits of work in the class which was then generally known as hooligans, a class drawn from the very worst social conditions in England. “We found that the vast majority of cases,” said Sir Evelyn Ruggles Brise, “were of those who had never been brought up against what I might call the ‘great imperatives’—that is, religion and home influence and the discipline of a father. Most of the boys who came to us in those days, and most of those who pass through our hands now, show family histories, which throw much light upon their criminal propensities: drunkenness, vice, insanity and degeneracy were among the chief causes. But whereas to-day we get the boy before he has been contaminated, then we got only those who had been depraved by long association with old hands.” SUCCESS OF THE WORK. To-day, so great has been the success of Borstal that additional institutes have been built; there is one at Portland and one at Feltham. The system was further extended -to deal with the delinquent girl, and a fine farm was started at Aylesbury, where these girls are set to work in the open air, taught trades, and generally started in the right direction. “Instead of the old system of warders,’’ said Sir Evelyn, “we got together a group of young men who had been doing social work and who had sympathy with the lads. They knew just how to combine authority and humane interest in proper proportions. \ “Another innovation then considered fantastically far-fetched was to introduce the public school system, with inter-house matches and competitions; and later, a summer camp where the well-conducted lads were allowed a greater degree of liberty.” A lad convicted of a serious offence — and only those enter Borstal —is turned over to the institute for an indefinite period. The maximum is three years, but it is in the lad’s power to shorten that period to one year by good conduct. HOME-LIKE METHODS. Boys in Borstal are allowed many homelike privileges. They may talk as much as they please, there are all manner of games after work hours—every trade is taught—and in the first class they are allowed a ration of tobacco. There have been critics of Borstal, but in no reputable quarter. One journal, whose former editor is now in prison, gave the name of a boy who ran away because of the harsh treatment meted out to him. The authorities took the matter up, only to find that no such boy ever entered the place. Considering the material —it is the most unlikely possible—the results achieved by Borstal are magnificent. During the 21 years just ended, the figures with regard to boys who have gone out into the world to earn their living after a spell in Borstal are given. Seventy-seven per cent, proved satisfactory; 13 per cent, unsatisfactory; 9 per cent, were reconvicted. An inquiry into the family conditions of the reconvicted showed the presence of the worst possible hereditary and social conditions —crime, poverty, insanity, degeneracy, illegitimacy and orphanage being the chief causes of delinquency. Borstal has also provided for the aftercare of its charges. Under the guidance of Sir Weymss Grant-Wilson, who has given twenty-five years of his life without monetary reward, for this work, the Borstal Association has cared for discharged Borstal boys and girls.