BORSTAL TYPES [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—As a
contribution to the discussion of " Prisons and Prisoners," may I send you what struck me as a most illuminating description of the types of boy who arrive at a Borstal school? It was given me a few years ago by a Governor, since retired.
The first were the dull and backward, not certifiably deficient, but not able to stand on their own feet in a competitive world and often the cat's paw of sharper minds.
The second were tough youngsters from rough-homes where anything extra was welcome without questions asked. Such niceties as mem and tuum were new ideas to them, but they were quite shrewd enough to learn that stealing was " a mug's game " and not worth the candle. These were the most hopeful cases.
Thirdly, came lads who had picked up friends better off than themselves and were stealing in order to cut a dash : here the psychological element appeared and improvement was less likely.
Lastly, came the sons of men who had risen a little in life and who were determined that their children should climb further up the social ladder. The boy was urged and driven to push ahead of his fellows, and, lacking any real ability, he began to take short cuts to the position he had been taught was his by right. When the short cut ended in the Police Court he was not unnaturally filled with a bitter sense of grievance, but instead of this being directed against his family all his resent- ment was vented on society at large. Such boys were almost irreclaimable and passed on into the world to become the back-. bone of the criminal population.
The particular interest of the last group was that it exactly tallied with what I had recently heard was the experience in America, that not the very poor but the get-rich-quick home was the breeding ground of serious crime.—Believe me,
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