CAMPS FOR BORSTAL LADS AND GIRLS [To the Editor of
the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Your readers are probably familiar with the general outlines of the Borstal System, which is the State's attempt to reform lads and girls who, between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one appear to have set out upon a criminal career. Though the material with which these Institutions lias to deal is of the toughest, the results are good, indeed, very good. Nearly sixty in every hundred of those who have passed through a Borstal Institution do not again come into conflict with the law, and what is more, most of them are known to be doing well. An essential part of Borstal Training should be the development of personal initiative and of sense of responsibility under conditions of comparative freedom, and it is with this in view, and having in mind the great success which has been obtained in past years by the institution of summer camps for the inmates of these Institutions, that I make this appeal. I ask your readers to subscribe liberally to a fund for sending for a week in camp those lads and girls in Borstal Institutions who have earned their promotion to the Special Grade, and have thereby shown their determination to discipline themselves, and to justify the hope that they will, on their release, become useful members of society. The annual cost of these camps, for which no Government grant is forthcoming, is £400, and the number attending camp is usually about three hundred and fifty, or about 25s. a head.
Subscriptions should be sent payable to the Director of the Borstal Association at 15 Buckingham Street, Strand, London,
W.C. 2.—I am, Sir, &c., W. JOYNSON-HICKS. Home. Office, Whitehall, S.W .1.
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