Borstal - Was It a Better System?

The first borstal was set up at Borstal Prison Kent 107 years ago and lasted much of the past century. It housed troubled boys aged 16-21 and offered education, regular work and discipline. The Criminal Justice Act of 1982 abolished these centres and replaced them with List D schools and now young offenders' prisons.

This weekend I was looking for the re-offending rate of young people in our prison system and I came across this from Ron Lovelock, who spent two years in borstal in the 60s. Dare I suggest that his final paragraph is the opinion of many :

'It seems stupid to have gotten rid of borstals - I think the country misses that sort of place. Kids can't be mollycoddled by the do-gooders of today; it doesn't do them any good. They have to learn discipline. And if they don't learn to find for themselves, they've had it.'

In the 60s there was little or no knife crime, gun crime or drug abuse and young offenders were sentenced for petty crimes in many cases. Today our criminal courts are dealing with much more serious crimes committed by young people but the punishment doesn't appear to be very effective once you see the re-offending figures, presently around 85%. What is the solution? We could try good old-fashioned discipline and good old-fashioned work.

Tweet