30 JULY 1937, Page 6

I wish the Prison Commissioners would consider a para- graph

which I read in an evening paper this week : " A Borstal boy escaped from Rochester Borstal Insti- tution this afternoon. Parties of boys from the institution are searching for him."

Is it right, or is it (as I think) all wrong, that Borstal boys should on occasion be turned into warders and set to track down one of their number who is foolish enough to try to make off ? It is the regular practice, but the boys themselves hate it, and very naturally. Their sympathy is inevitably with the hunted. It is the business of the authorities to keep the boys safe, and ought to be their business, with the help of the police, to fetch boys back if they run away. Amateur sleuthing should be no part of Borstal. discipline.

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