BORSTAL INSTITUTIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 September 1930, Page 6

BORSTAL INSTITUTIONS.

On the whole, the Prisons Department may be said to have given an effective reply to the criticisms of the Borstal Institution near Invercargill, that were made in the House of Representatives last week. It can show results there that are very satisfactory, though the department will be the first to admit that they can be made still better. Reformative training that can show over 90 per cent, “recovery” cannot be wholly wrong in principle or in application, and that is the record of the Borstal institutions in New Zealand. In Great Britain, where the classification of inmates is carried even further than it is here, and where several new buildings have been erected for Borstal establishments,. the percentage of those who do" not come before the courts again is less than 70, and this although in the United Kingdom the work among ex-Borstal inmates is well organised. Of course, there is often a great difference between tlie class of young person sent for Borstal training in Great Britain, and those in this country. The young people at Homo have grown up underfed and in social surroundings that would not be tolerated here. First of all, in many cases, the Borstal authorities have to build up the inmates’ physical constitution before they can really undertake his moral reclamation. Of that difficulty the New Zealand authorities know very little. If there are such cases they are usually due to self-neg-lect or indulgence, which responds to the ordinary conditions of the Borstal institution. The lads are taught farming and other useful trades, and the small number of attempted escapes shows that on the whole there can be little fault to find with their treatment. It is possible that an improvement in the buildings used would be desirable. So long as the youths are kept warhi and comfortable the new buildings must await an improvement in the country’s finances, though the, effect of environment among young people must not be lost sight of. Although there seems little cause for complaint, it is just as well that the Borstal system should be subject to public review from time to time. Complacency in social work is a deadly evil, and it is one that State institutions are liable to suffer from without the tonic of healthy criticism.