THE BORSTAL SYSTEM.

Southland Times, Issue 23026, 21 October 1936, Page 8

THE BORSTAL SYSTEM.

To the Editor,

Sir, —The recent Parliamentary debate has shown up some very weak spots in our present Borstal system. Ought we not to follow with attention the words of Lord Hewat, English Lord Chief Justice, in this matter? He has recently pointed out that, in England, Borstals have now quite changed their “mild prison” character (still obtaining in our own). “The basis has become educational.” he says, “and the institutions are now schools of charac-ter-building so framed that each individual character may be studied as a separate and distinct problem. It is a hard and industrious programme of training, each day containing sixteen hours of effort and occupation.” Borstal staffs in England are by no means just prison-manned like our own: They are specially trained in ways that ours are not. In addition, at the lads’ Borstals every house has a woman matron, and every institution a trained woman nurse, while the start of the “individual training” given to each inmate is a thorough psychological and social examination. Our Borstals are utterly lacking in these vital points, and we have no other ground whatever for complacency about them (even if the lads are now to receive butter!). Let us, instead, lay to heart Lord Hewat’s wise advice that all “those who have the responsibility of dealing with them would do well to pool their experience, be steadily open to new ideas, and be always ready to listen to and accept criticism, always believing that better ways may yet be found.”

Here, I fear, we are indeed sadly to seek! Mr E. J. Howard, M.P., was entirely right in pointing out that the essentials of the English Borstal system have never been grasped by our authorities. Will not a Labour Government see the social wisdom of looking further into this whole matter.”—Yours, etc.,

B. E. BAUGHAN, Akaroa, October 19, 1936.