borstal system

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A borstal was a type of youth prison in the United Kingdom, run by the Prison Service and intended to reform seriously delinquent young people. The word is sometimes used loosely to apply to other kinds of youth institution or reformatory , ^[1] such as Approved Schools and Detention Centres. The court sentence was officially called "borstal training". Borstals were originally for offenders under 21, but in the 1930s the age was increased to under 23.

History

Borstal

The Gladstone Committee (1895) proposed the concept, wishing to separate youths from older convicts in adult prisons. It was the task of Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise (1857–1935), a prison commissioner, to introduce the system, and the first such institution was established at Borstal Prison in a village called Borstal, near Rochester, Kent, England in 1902. The system was developed on a national basis and formalised in the Prevention of Crime Act 1908.

The regimen in these institutions was designed to be "educational rather than punitive", but it was highly regulated, with a focus on routine, discipline and authority. Except in Northern Ireland, the only corporal punishment officially available in Borstal was the birch for mutiny or assaulting an officer, and this could be imposed only by the visiting magistrates, subject in each case to the personal approval of the Home Secretary, just as in adult prisons.^[2] Only male inmates over 18 might be so punished. This power was very rarely used – there were only 7 birching cases in borstals in the 10 years to 1936.^[3] This birching power was available only in England and Wales (not in Scottish borstals).^[4] Caning as a more day-to-day punishment was used in the single borstal in Northern Ireland but was not authorised in England, Scotland or Wales.^[5] Confusion on this matter arises perhaps because in Approved Schools, a quite different kind of youth institution based more on the open "boarding school" model, caning was a frequent official punishment for boys (maximum age 19).^[6] Borstal institutions were designed to offer education, regular work and discipline, though one commentator has claimed that "more often than not they were breeding grounds for bullies and psychopaths."^[7] Some uncorroborated anecdotal evidence exists of unofficial brutality, both by staff towards the inmates and between inmates – though possibly no more than is the case for the prison system as a whole.

The Criminal Justice Act 1982 abolished the borstal system in the UK, introducing youth custody centres instead.

A similar system under the name "borstal" had also been introduced in several other states of the British Empire and Commonwealth, including Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland the Criminal Justice Act, 1960 (Section 12) removed the term from use. This was part of a policy to broaden the system from reform and training institutions to a place of detention for youths between 17 and 21 for any sentence which carried a prison term.

Borstal in the arts

Literature

• Irish writer Brendan Behan wrote of his experiences in the English borstal system in his 1958 autobiography Borstal Boy.
• In his 1959 short story, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, (included in the book of the same name) Alan Sillitoe wrote about a boy's time in a Borstal for robbing a bakery. In 1962 a film, was made based on it, directed by Tony Richardson and starring Tom Courtenay.

Cinema

• Alan Clarke's 1979 film Scum, a re-write of his own BBC television play that was banned before ever being shown, was set in a Borstal. Starring Ray Winstone, it was first shown by Channel 4 in 1983, and has since become something of a cult classic.

See also

• Her Majesty's Young Offender Institution
• Young offender
• Youth detention center
• Clonmel Borstal
• Home Office v Dorset Yacht Co

References

1. ^ "Bradwall Reformatory School 1855 to 1920", a Local History Site. ([1])
2. ^ Report of the Departmental Committee on Corporal Punishment (the "Cadogan Report"), Cmnd. 5684, Home Office, 1938, p.123.
3. ^ Cadogan, p.122.
4. ^ Cadogan, p.123.
5. ^ Nial Osborough, Borstal in Ireland: Custodial provision for the young adult offender 1906–1974, Institute of Public Administration, Dublin, 1975. ISBN 0-902173-66-9
6. ^ Report of a Committee to Review Punishments in Prisons, Borstal Institutions, Approved Schools and Remand Homes (the "Franklin Report"), Cmnd. 8429, Home Office, 1951.
7. ^ Bernard O'Mahoney, The A-Z of Law and Disorder, July 2006.

External links

• Specialized "Borstal" website, contains many unsourced and questionable claims about unofficial corporal punishment, also tends to lump borstals together with Approved Schools^{[dead link]}
• Reformatory links from CorPun site devoted to corporal punishments
• Archive pictures of Portland Borstal, 1920s and 1930s
• "Borstal changed my life" – BBC website
• Photograph of borstal boys at work – National Archives
• Extract from a report about girls' borstal in 1938 – National Archives
• Elizabeth M. Chesser, "New Reform for Girl Criminals; English Scheme Which Is Educational Rather Than Punitive", (article about extension of borstal system to include girls), New York Times, 27 December 1908