Borstal

For other uses, seeBorstal (disambiguation).

Not to be confused withBoarstall.

Entrance toThe Grove Prison.Built in 1848, it operated as an adult prison from 1848, a borstal from 1921, and a young offenders institution from 1988.

Aborstalwas a type ofyouth detention centrein the United Kingdom, several member states of theCommonwealthand theRepublic of Ireland.In India, such a detention centre is known as aborstal school.

Borstals were run byHM Prison Serviceand were intended to reformyoung offenders.The word originated from the first such institution established in 1902 near the English village ofBorstalin Kent, and is sometimes used loosely to apply to other kinds of youth institutions and reformatories,such asapproved schoolsandyouth detention centres.The court sentence was officially called "borstal training". Borstals were originally for offenders under 21, but in the 1930s the maximum age was increased to 23. The Criminal Justice Act 1982 abolished the borstal system in the UK, replacing borstals with youth custody centres.

In India, borstal schools are used for the imprisonment ofminors.As of 31 December 2014, there were twenty functioning borstal schools in India, with a combined total capacity of 2,108 inmates.

History

United Kingdom

HMP Portland, Dorset, former Borstal

The Gladstone Committee (1895) first proposed the concept of the borstal, wishing to separate youths from older convicts in adult prisons. It was the task of SirEvelyn Ruggles-Brise(1857–1935), a prison commissioner, to introduce the system, and the first such institution was established atBorstal Prisonin a village calledBorstal,nearRochester, Kent,England, in 1902. Although originally created to be a typical prison, Borstal evolved into something new, with the name still recognised today. The redesigned prison regime focused on education rather than punishment, aiming to avoid inmates reoffending.

The system was developed on a national basis and formalised in the Prevention of Crime Act 1908. The regimen in these institutions was designed to be "educational rather than punitive", but it was highly regulated, with a focus on routine, discipline and authority during the early years. Borstal institutions were originally designed to offer education, regular work and discipline, though one commentator has claimed that "more often than not they were breeding grounds for bullies andpsychopaths."

TheCriminal Justice Act 1982officially abolished the borstal system in the UK, introducing youth custody centres instead. As society had changedthe system was then already outdated especially since the late 1960s and early 1970s, with many borstals being closed and replaced with institutions called Detention Centres and, from 1972, also withCommunity Service Ordersentences.

Corporal punishment

Except inNorthern Ireland,the onlycorporal punishmentofficially available in borstals was thebirchfor mutiny or assaulting an officer, and this could be imposed only by the visiting magistrates, subject in each case to the personal approval of theHome Secretary,just as in adult prisons.Only male inmates over 18 might be so punished. This power was very rarely used – there were only seven birching cases in borstals in the 10 years to 1936.This birching power was available only in England and Wales (not in Scottish borstals).Caningas a more day-to-day punishment was used in the single borstal in Northern Ireland but was not authorised in Scotland or England and Wales.Confusion on this matter arises perhaps because inapproved schools,a quite different kind of youth institution based more on the open "boarding school" model, caning was an official punishment for young people (maximum age 19).

Commonwealth

A similar system under the name "borstal" or "borstal school" has also been introduced in several otherCommonwealth countries.

India

Further information:Prisons in India

InIndia,nine states, namelyHimachal Pradesh,Jharkhand,Karnataka,Kerala,Maharashtra,Punjab,Rajasthan,Tamil Nadu,andTelangana,have borstal schools in their respective jurisdictions. Tamil Nadu had the highest capacity, at 678 inmates (as of 2014). Himachal Pradesh and Kerala are the only states that have the capacity to lodge female inmates in two of their borstal schools. There are no borstal schools in any of theunion territories.

Ireland

Main article:Clonmel Borstal

InIrelandthe Criminal Justice Act, 1960 (Section 12) removed the term "borstal" from official use.This was part of a policy to broaden the system from reform and training institutions to a place of detention for youths between 17 and 21 for any sentence which carried a prison term.The only borstal in the state was based for most of its existence inClonmel,inCounty Tipperary.Founded in 1906, it finally closed in 1956, when the remaining detainees were transferred to the newly establishedSt. Patrick's InstitutioninDublin.Industrial schoolsperformed a similar function to borstals.

In popular culture

Literature

• Irish writerBrendan Behanwrote of his experiences in the English borstal system in his autobiographyBorstal Boy(1958). It was later adapted intoplayandfilm versions.
• Alan Sillitoe's short story "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner"(1959) is included in thebook of the same title.A boy's period in a borstal for robbing a bakery is recounted. Thefilm versionfollowed in 1962 in whichTom Courtenaystarred and the director wasTony Richardson.
• InRoald Dahl's children's bookMatilda(1988), Hortensia initially refers to the school as "borstal" on Matilda's first day.
• Alan Figg's bookBorstal 80gives a personal account of time served 1980 to 1981 atPortlandBorstal.

Cinema

• The British film,Boys in Brown(1949) starsRichard Attenborough,Dirk BogardeandJack Warner.It looks at life in a borstal and the challenges faced by those who go through them.
• Scum(1977), a once bannedPlay for Todayand its cinema remakeScum(1979) are set in a borstal.Ray Winstone,in a very early role, features in both versions.
• YoungRaymond Briggsis threatened with being sent to "Borstal" by a police officer after being suspected of trying to steal "valuable billiard cues" from a golf club in the animated filmEthel & Ernest(2016).
• Scrubbers(1982) British drama film set in a girls' borstal, directed byMai Zetterlingand starring Amanda York and Chrissie Cotterill.

Television

• In the fourth episode of the first series of the showFawlty Towers,titled "The Hotel Inspectors", the main character,Basil Fawlty,is chastised by his wife, Sybil, for his harsh treatment of their guests. She tells him, "This is a hotel, not a borstal." Basil later ingratiatingly repeats the line to a guest whom he believes to be a hotel inspector.
• A ninth series episode of the BBC television showFather Brown,titled "The Wayward Girls" and first broadcast in January 2022, was set in a borstal.
• In the first series, 6th episode, ofDownton Abbey,Lady Sybil Crawley asks her father's permission to be driven to Ripon to attend a Borstal committee meeting ( "I've missed the last two" ), but instead she has the chauffeur, Branson, drop her at the location where the by-election vote count is being announced. She is injured in a brawl; Branson and her father's cousin Matthew rescue her.
• Dog Borstalis the title of a British television series in which dog trainers address challenging behaviour by dogs.
• The "Crime" episode of the 1997 British comedy seriesBrass Eyefeatured a segment satirizing the borstal system.

Music

• The British rock bandFacesrecorded a song (written byRod Stewart,Ronnie Wood,andIan McLagan) called "Borstal Boys" on their final studio albumOoh La La.
• The British punk rock bandSham 69had a top 40 hit single with a song called "Borstal Breakout" in 1977.
• The British rock bandHumble Pierecorded a song called "30 Days in the Hole"that included the lyric" Some seeds and dust, and you got Borstal. "
• The British ska/rock bandMadnessbased their song "Land of Hope and Glory" from the albumOne Step Beyond...on one of their members' time in a borstal for petty theft.
• The British singer-songwriterRichard Thompsonincluded a song called "I Can't Wake Up to Save My Life" on his 1994 albumMirror Blue,which included the lines "Things I done make my dreams turn bad, like borstal boys coming home to Dad", an image similar to "chickens coming home to roost".
• The German punk bandOxymoronreleased a track titled "Borstal" on their 1995 album "Fuck The Nineties...Here's Our Noize".
• The British synthpop bandBronski Beatfeatured a mince pie-eating competition in Borstal with lead singerJimmy Somervillewinning the contest in the music videoof the cover song "It Ain't Necessarily So"from the albumThe Age of Consent.
• The Borstal is a punk rock band fromJakarta,Indonesia.
• Borstal is aheavy hardcoreband fromLondon,withBrujeriaandKnuckledustmembers (including lead singer, Pelbu).
• Borstal is a song by British hip hop group Monster Florence
• The British rock bandSqueezeincluded a song called "Vicky Verky" on their 1980 albumArgybargy,which included the lines "Well he went off to Borstal, He said that he was forced to, Rob the flats of Hi Fis, 'Cause she was ill and she would cry".

See also

• His Majesty's Young Offender Institution
• Young offender
• Youth detention center
• Clonmel Borstal

External links

• Specialized "Borstal" website, contains many unsourced and questionable claims about unofficial corporal punishment, also tends to lump borstals together with Approved Schools
• Reformatory links from CorPun site devoted to corporal punishments
• Archive pictures of Portland Borstal, 1920s and 1930s
• "Borstal changed my life" – BBC website
• 27 photographs of the first Borstal, Kent, in 1902 - Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
• Photograph of borstal boys at work – National Archives
• Extract from a report about girls' borstal in 1938 – National Archives
• Elizabeth M. Chesser, "NEW REFORM FOR GIRL CRIMINALS; English Scheme Which Is Educational Rather Than Punitive" (article about extension of borstal system to include girls),The New York Times,27 December 1908