ABSTRACT
Perhaps one of the most disturbing paragraphs in the whole of the voluminous research devoted to young offenders is one in a searching study of Dover Borstal by Bottoms and McClintock. It stated that the longer an offender was kept in custody the greater were his chances of reconviction. No difference was made by the experimental modification of the regime to fit training more precisely to individuals’ needs. Often prison is trying to do what schools have failed to achieve outside. The raising of the school leaving age and the consequent requirement for the Prison Department to educate more youngsters in its care in the new, higher age group has added to strain on the service. Certainly the failure of other authorities to provide accommodation, treatment and education is burdening the prison system so much that it can no longer concentrate properly on those who really need to be there.
