Punishment in Borstals
Sta.—Mr. Chuter Ede's acceptance of certain of the recommendations of the report on Punishments in Prisons and Borstal -Institutions is surprising. Whenever there was a clash of opinion between the Borstal governors and the Borstal officers, the Home Secretary seems to have accepted the views of the latter and to have ignored those of the governors. Is it so certain that the disciplinary staff is wiser and more Cdr.-seeing-than the governors with their wider experience?
= Mr. Ohuter Ede seems altogether to have little trust in his Borstal governors. They are not in future to be allowed to deal with absconders. That is to be put into the hands of the Visiting Committee. ApParently the outside visitors, who are not necessarily experienced or trained' in the handling of adolescents, are expected to have greater understanding of the reasons that make a .boy or girl abscond than the governors and housemasters who live in daily intercourse with them. This intercourse and the personal relationship arising from it lie at the basis of Borstal training. Anything that, shatters this is to be deprecated, but to hand an absconder over to an outside body for punishment must not only weaken this relationship but also weaken the respect felt by the young people for the governors.—I am, Sir, yours, &c., W. A.. &env, Press Secretary, Howard League for Penal Reform. Parliament Mansions, Abbey Orchard Street, S.W.I.
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