Borstal Training

BORSTAL TRAINING

Borstal training is the only form of medium term training available for young offenders between the ages of 15 and 21 years who are deemed to be unsuitable (or too old) to go to an approved school, who need a longer period of treatment than that available in detention centres, and who are not already so recidivist as to be eligible for a sentence of imprisonment of eighteen months or more.

Each offender sentenced to borstal training is first sent to a reception centre or remand centre; from here he is allocated to the training borstal best suited to his character and requirements.

There is a wide range of training borstals available, varying from establishments where the conditions of supervision and control approximate to those of a closed prison, through medium security borstals, to quite open establishments of which Hollesley Bay is the largest. The nature of the work and the availability of vocational training also varies from borstal to borstal.

The emphasis in borstal training is on remedial and educational treatment based on close study of the individual. Borstals are organised so as to facilitate individual study, personal training and wise leadership. Standardisation is not sought. At Hollesley Bay, as in all borstals, the inmates are grouped in houses. Each of the six houses here contain about 60 inmates and a team of staff under the direction of a housemaster. The housemaster is responsible to the governor for the administration of his house and for the personal training of the inmates in it. The regime of one house may vary from that of another but the aim of all is the same. The system of training seeks the all-round development of character and capacities - moral, mental, physical and vocational - and is based on progressive trust demanding increasing personal decision, responsibility and self-control. Opportunities are given to practise these qualities, and the conditions in borstals are sufficiently various and elastic to suit different characters and different stages of development.

The elements of training are the same in all borstal establishments and the daily programme is exacting - a full day of useful and interesting work in a workshop or on the land; regular physical training; and an active evening with educational or handicraft classes or gymnastics, but also with opportunity for quiet reading and writing and a reasonable time for recreation. The kind of work varies from place to place. At Hollesley Bay there are vocational training courses in boot and shoe making and repairing, bricklaying, bread baking, carpentry, farming, horticulture and painting and decorating. As well as the general work to be carried out on the 1800 acre estate much of the new building and all the maintenance is carried out by the inmates under the direction of qualified tradesmen.

At every borstal there is provision for the continued education of inmates, by class teaching, by individual study and by the development of hobbies and handicrafts and cultural interests. Special arrangements are made for the education during the normal working day of those who are educationally backward or illiterate. Each establishment has a full-time or part time tutor organiser, and the professional teachers are provided in consultation with the local education authorities. The educational arrangements are inspected by H.M. Inspectors of Education.

Spare time activities in borstals are extremely varied and are regarded as a most valuable instrument of training. They are increasingly based on the need to counter the artificiality of institutional life by taking the borstal out into the community and bringing the community into the borstal. Everyone is encouraged to practice his religion, or to learn or re-learn it. Every establishment has its chaplain, who is full-time in the larger institutions such as Hollesley Bay, and his influence is not the least of those brought to bear on the development of character and potentialities.

All inmates have the opportunity once during their training to go home on leave for five days; this is to give them the chance to re-establish relations with home, to help them back to the realities of outside life, to encourage a sense of responsibility, and to bring them into touch with those who will be supervising their after-care, and often with a potential employer. Additional periods of leave may sometimes be granted, where normal leave cannot be used for the purpose, to allow an inmate to meet a prospective employer or to appear before a trade training course panel.

Each case is kept under review throughout the period of training. The opinions of the housemaster and other members of the staff are recorded as the inmate progresses, and at the proper time his case is carefully considered by a board presided over by the governor of the institution. When it is decided that training in custody has served its purpose and that he is ready to be released under supervision the board submits the case to the Board of Visitors who, if they agree, recommend to the Home Secretary that he should be discharged.