Report of the Departmental Committee on the Treatment of Young Offenders.
- Great Britain. Committee on the Treatment of Young Offenders.
- Date:
- 1927
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Departmental Committee on the Treatment of Young Offenders. Source: Wellcome Collection.
102/144 (page 100)
![point whether a lad is or is not suitable for Borstal training is already somewhat less than it was, because the Prison Com- missioners have to some extent relaxed the conditions for admission whose existence rendered the consultation necessary. The requirement was inserted in the Act of 1908 be- cause. Borstal training was originally devised only for young offenders who were healthy in body and mind, and who, though far advanced relatively to their age on a criminal career, yet were not considered beyond hope of reform. It followed from this that there were four grounds on which a lad might be declared unfit. He might be too depraved, or not depraved enough ; or he might be either physically or mentally incapable of profiting by the training. It was in view of these somewhat numerous possibilities of exclusion that the Prison Com- missioners were called upon by Parliament to assist the courts. Their practice has been to give in each tase (a) a special opinion whether the lad in question is or is not excluded on any of these grounds, as well as (b).a general opinion on the point whether - he requires training. The Prison Commissioners have already lowered two of the four barriers. They have admitted lads suffering from a moderate degree of physical disability; and they have also adopted a wider view of the possibilities of reform, in so much that no lad, with rare exceptions, is now considered too bad for -Borstal. If, as we recommend elsewhere, certain jads who are now sent to prison rather than Borstal on the ground that they are not as yet of formed criminal habits, and certain weak-minded offenders for whom provision cannot other- wise be made, are also admitted to Borstal, the two remaining | barriers will have fallen and a special opinion on the question of exclusion will no longer be needed. Tt will then become the duty of the court to decide the question for or against Borstal training on the same general grounds, and after enquiries similar in character, to those which the juvenile court has to make when deciding the question of committal to a certified school. The need for obtaining full information before deciding the question is of course no less. Greater attention, if possible, should be paid to this need than has hitherto been the case. But in the case of the lad who -may, or may not, be sent to Borstal, the court should now, we think (pending the establishment of the Observation Centres) make its own arrangements for collecting all the necessary information instead of relying as hitherto upon the prison authorities, The opinion of the prison authorities on the general question whether or no the young offender needs training will not be excluded, and no doubt will prove valuable in cases in which he has to be remanded in custody or committed to prison to await trial. But the court will make its enquiries from other sources also. It will obtain personal and family history from the probation officer, or other socia] workers, the school record](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32178578_0102.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
