Founded 1980
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Graham Smith
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DOVER BORSTAL continued
Each living unit had a staff of a housemaster (assistant governor 2) 4 officers and a matron, mine was Miss Graham, a real Scot who liked a dram or two, or some nights a bit more and you knew to stay clear unless something was urgent. She looked after clothing and first aid. And there was a night patrol. This was to cover 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year. Officers in Borstals did not wear uniform but were in civvies, which did a lot to emphasize that this was a training and rehabilitation sentence. (Some idiot in Government decided in 1982 that officers should be in uniform, as they were changing the whole ethos and creating ‘mini prisons’ for the under 21-year-olds, and the that they would have ‘determinate sentences’ and not Borstal sentences which were open-ended and meant the trainees had to earn their release by how they applied themselves to both work and education and their perspective on criminal behaviour. What the Gladstone Committee of 1895 had firmly laid in statute and enshrined was first that there should be individualization of penal treatment and that secondly there should be special reformative prisons for young offenders which were put into effect in 1908 when the Chatham Prison was converted to hold only young offenders and was named after the village where it was situated, Borstal. From that, a whole system of establishments evolved with their own Rules and Regulations, aptly known as the Borstal System. What had been firmly established with such reforming insight and zeal was to be lost forever by rather a bland and uninspiring system that did little for the staff or those for whom they had responsibility. This has deteriorated even further as most young offenders now serve their sentences in adult prisons and are a major element in the increase in violence. The housemasters worked a 12-day fortnight with alternate weekends off. The working hours were in theory morning and evening with at least 2 afternoons off duty, but in reality, one rarely had an afternoon off, as outside personnel visiting usually wanted to see you in the afternoon, and workload was such that you went in any way to keep on top of it.
Dover Borstal In its Winter Dress
I was lucky in that I had one of the best officers at Dover (Brian) and I leant a lot from him. Another officer, Freddie was nicknamed ‘Fearless Fred’, this came about as officers had every so often stand in as night patrols, and as explained the house units were dormitories so the inmates had freedom of movement to wander around. One night in Hastings house a group of lads attempted to obtain the keys from Fred to prevent that he took his keys off and threw them out of the unit so that he remained locked in the unit, and their attempt to escape was foiled. When available the Orderly Officer came to the unit retrieved the keys and made sure Fred was OK.
All lads had to take part in sporting activities at weekends, and this included the unit football teams who turned out in full kit to play in inter-unit games. They all paraded ready for action on the Parade Square for a role check before those going to the Sports Field were marched there as it was outside of the establishment. Freddy was not the best organized and apparently had been the last to assemble his unit on several occasions. One particular weekend the Governor was personally on duty, I suspect the Orderly Officer in charge of the parade advised the Governor that Hythe House were regularly late when Fred was in charge. The Governor ‘had words’ Fred argued about lack of football boots, the Governor became irritated and sent Fred off duty and told him he was suspended. When I returned to work on Monday there was no Fred, and no one seemed clear as to what the position was. So I had to enquire of the Governor where Fred stood. The Governor advised that he just wanted to make the point very clear, and I could see him and advise he could now return. So I had to go to his house and advise him of the situation and escort him back to the establishment, he did seem most relieved. For the next few months at least, there no problems on Fred’s weekend on duty, re-boots, and Hythe were always the first on parade. Alan was a bit of a makeweight but was a pleasant man, and he was in charge of the outside party of lads who went to Dover Castle every weekday to maintain all the castle grounds. I must say they made a good job of it, but I doubt that few of the residents of Dover knew who was keeping the grounds so tidy. Big George was big in stature and believed he was ‘the bee’s knees’ in all he undertook until one night. He was undertaking night patrol duties in the old Hastings House. Once they were all in bed and seemingly asleep, he decided to settle down to some paperwork. He became so engrossed that he failed to notice that some of the lads were finishing off cutting through the bars in the far dormitory. Worse than that he did not realize 21 lads had absconded until he undertook the statutory roll call before handing over to the day staff in the morning. It was the ‘largest escape ever from the establishment.’ George had to eat ‘humble pie and did not seem so large for long after the event.
Mentioned earlier was the fact that lads managed to ‘escape ‘; how they managed to overcome the 30-foot dry moat, especially as we tried to convince them a fiercesome badger was living down there, I still do not know. The training workshops (painting and decorating, woodwork, plastering and light engineering) were in a separate gated compound reached by an internal bridge but was not encompassed by the moat, just a steep decline to the valley. One morning in work time the patrol officer spotted that the security fence had been cut, he saw a lad loitering in the area and just assumed he had been let out of the workshop for some fresh air. The officer shouted to him to run to the Orderly Office and advise there had been an escape and for them to do an immediate roll check, while I see if I can any trace of who has escaped. The lad did as instructed. The roll call resulted in identifying that no one was missing, which was a bit puzzling!
As the lad who was sent to raise the alarm was from my house that evening, once the majority had gone to evening education or the gym, and the rest were in the recreation room, I had him brought discretely to my office and explained that I wanted to know a bit more about the incident that morning, thinking he must have seen more of what had occurred. He looked at me a bit startled, I said I would go out on a limb and guarantee that no disciplinary action would be taken whatever the facts, but there was a need to know what occurred. After a little hesitation, he said it was me I cut the fence. I said you had opportunity why did you not take it. He replied I had not realized it was Officer X on patrol; he is a good officer and treats us well, so I did not want to get him in trouble. It was a sobering reminder that treating one's charges ‘decently’ does not go unnoticed.
One of the oddities of Borstal life was that though lads tried to abscond at various times in the year, in the Summer the Borstal held a Sports Day where the 6 houses competed against each other. This was held on a Saturday and every lad attended the sports field (outside the establishment with no security) and their parents and relations were invited to attend and bring a picnic to have with their lad. In the 4 years I was there not a single lad attempted to abscond. It was almost an unwritten code that you did not jeopardize a privilege and possibly spoil it for others.
One of the events on sports day was a cross country race over the hills of Dover and back on a circular route. As my house wished to perform well on sports day, I allowed those competing to be in the cross-country team to undertake practice runs in the light evenings over the same course, but I always ran with them. Some were clearly fitter than me and though I exhorted them to stay as a group, some would scamper on ahead, which was a worry, but convinced myself that they would not let me down and I knew they would have to wait for the rest of us to get back in the Borstal. When the main group got back there was still no sign of the missing two. I went to the Orderly Room to advise that it looked like we had 2 absconders; they were about to raise the alarm when the phone went, and the gate announced that they had two lads there who claimed they had been on the cross-country and got left behind. What they had done was to race ahead and the moved off the route and hidden and once we had gone past they were going to follow behind, to make me think they had absconded, then join back on as we neared the end. They had hidden so well and were busy talking, that they missed us running past, but eventually realized we must have passed but had left it too late to catch up.
In the summer months, in particular, every weekend I was on duty, I took a group of 15-20 more trusted lads on a Sunday walk over the cliffs from Dover to St Margaret’s Bay and back. We always started from Dover Castle, to which we had free access, I would let them loose to wander around but insisted they reassemble at a certain time and at this point as I would remain there. Some were invariably late, so returnee s would offer to go find them; I said no I would keep those who had returned. On every occasion eventually all returned. There was a strict rule that no bathing costumes could be taken on these outings, as health and safety even ruled then. We walked to the bay on the cliff tops but returned whenever possible on the lower level. On a hot summer’s day after a long walk, despite my earnest protestations, you try and keep a group of teenagers, who are now only a yard from the sea, from disrobing to their baggy issued underpants and diving into the sea: not a pretty sight. They had no towels, just dried off in the sun. They all said how great it was and never did anyone of them put themselves in danger by doing something stupid.
Boys clearing the Winter Roads
Boys on a Hike
Bob Duncan
Autobiography.
