Borstals led to network of criminals, inquiry told

BORSTAL schools created a network of criminals like reformed gang member Jimmy Boyle because of the bad experience children had there, an inquiry has been told.

Residential childcare expert Professor Andrew Kendrick suggested that the institutions were not good environments for rehabilitation.

The emeritus professor of social work at the University of Strathclyde was giving evidence at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) on the care of children in Scotland between 1948 to 1968.

He referenced the experiences of sculptor and novelist Boyle, whose memories of the system are set out in his book A Sense of Freedom.

The book describes his former experiences in approved schools as involving a rigid regime, where corporal punishment and violence involving young people or staff was routine, the inquiry heard.

Professor Kendrick told the hearing: ‘I think the other thing that comes out of his description is the way in which networks of criminals were created because of their experience in the approved schools and the borstal system.

‘His attitude was he grinned and bore it. Those institutions weren’t particularly rehabilitative environments.’

Professor Kendrick has compiled a report for the SCAI that looks at various aspects surrounding the care of children in Scotland dating back more than a century.

He also spoke of large care institutions, such as voluntary homes or orphanages, from the past as ‘sterile’ and impersonal environments.

He told the hearing in Edinburgh: ‘Children scrubbing floors or cleaning woodwork or polishing brass, in voluntary homes and approved schools, it was a constant theme – that these institutions might gleam and sparkle, but they were so sterile as well because of this.’

The inquiry continues.