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Institutional power and the Irish borstal boy, 1906–21

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2015

Conor Reidy
Conor Reidy*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Limerick
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Extract

This article will examine the unique power structure that governed the lives of inmates of Ireland's borstal institution from its foundation in 1906 until the end of British rule in 1921. The borstal system was developed at the close of the nineteenth century at a time when penal administrators were searching for new and more enlightened modes of detention. Reform became something of a catchphrase and the borstal was one of two approaches, the other being the inebriate reformatory system that captured the imagination of Home Office officials. During this time there was a transition of leadership in the British penal system as those who subscribed to the more outdated idea of imprisonment without reform were replaced with more enlightened idealists. Borstal offenders in Ireland and Britain were subjected to an authoritarian structure unlike that experienced by prisoners within mainstream institutions of the penal systems in both countries. The division of power involved a three-way process in Clonmel borstal between 1906 and 1921. Three different but inextricably linked bodies, the General Prisons Board (G.P.B.), the institutional management, and the aftercare body, the Borstal Association of Ireland (B.A.I.), cooperated in a type of alliance with the aim of bringing about the reform of the juvenile-adult offender. Ultimate power rested in the hands of G.P.B. administrators but it is clear that governors, warders and aftercare officials had considerable influence in the decision-making process.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 149 , May 2012 , pp. 36 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2012

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References

1 Borstal offenders were always referred to as ‘inmates’ or Offenders’ and never prisoners. They served a ‘period of detention’ rather than a sentence. This form of words was laid down by the founders of the system in Britain and was strictly adhered to both there and in Ireland.

2 For further reading on the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Irish prison system see Carey, Tim, Mountjoy: the story of a prison (Dublin, 2000);Google ScholarO’Donnell, Ian and McAuley, Finbarr (eds), Criminal justice history (Dublin, 2003);Google ScholarCarroll-Burke, Patrick, Colonial discipline: the making of the Irish convict system (Dublin, 2000).Google Scholar For further reading on the Irish borstal system see Osborough, Nial, Borstal in Ireland: custodial provision for the young adult offender, 1906–1974 (Dublin, 1975)Google Scholar; Reidy, Conor, Ireland’s ‘moral hospital’: the Irish borstal system, 1906–1956 (Dublin, 2009).Google Scholar The most significant historical work on the British borstal system is Hood, Roger, Borstal reassessed (London, 1965),Google Scholar and for a useful and technical account of British penal history and theory see Radzinowicz, Leon and Hood, Roger, A history of English criminal law: the emergence of penal policy (London, 1986).Google Scholar See also Foucault, Michel, Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison (London, 1991).Google Scholar

3 Carey, , Mountjoy, p. 12.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., pp 24–31.

5 Dooley, Elizabeth, ‘Sir Walter Crofton’ in O’Donnell and McAuley (eds), Criminal justice history, pp 197–220.Google Scholar

6 Cited in Report of the departmental committee on prisons in England and Wales, iv, [Cd–1278], H.L. 1895. The publication of the report was followed a day later by the resignation of the unpopular chairman of the Prison Commissioners for England and Wales, Sir Edmund DuCane. He was replaced by a career civil servant and noted humanitarian, Evelyn John Ruggles-Brise.

7 Hood, , Borstal reassessed, p. 14.Google Scholar

8 Ibid., p. 15.

9 Proceedings of the International Penitentiary Congress, p.12, H.L. 1910 (5286) xxxix, 6.

10 Ibid.

11 Ruggles-Brise, Evelyn, The English prison system (London, 1921), p. 91.Google Scholar

12 Foucault, , Discipline and punish, p. 235.Google Scholar

13 Ibid., p. 233.

14 Twenty-ninth report of the General Prisons Board for Ireland, p. 55, HL.1906 (3698), x.

15 Osborough, , Borstal in Ireland, p. 80.Google Scholar

16 Freeman’s Journal, 30 May 1912.

17 Proceedings of the International Penitentiary Congress, p.12.

18 Ibid.

19 See Reidy, Ireland’s ‘moral hospital’, chapter four.

20 Correspondence records within the archive of the G.P.B. located at the N.A.I. show evidence of the contacts between the various parties in this process. Blank forms were designed on which governors, warders and chaplains, among others, were directed to fill in specific details on the prisoner and his potential suitability for borstal treatment. Inmates could be excluded from borstal on the basis of their health, behaviour or potential for reform, as deemed by prison authorities.

21 Listed in Second report of the Royal Commission on Prisons in Ireland, xxxviii [C-4145], H.L. 1883–1, v. 16.

22 Hood, , Borstal reassessed, p. 15.Google Scholar

23 Foucault, , Discipline and punish, pp 149–51.Google Scholar

24 Address by J. S. Gibbons, Chairman of G.P.B. to the International Penitentiary Congress, p. 53, H.L. 1910 (5286) xxxix, 6.

25 Memorandum on the Prevention of Crime Act 1908 (N.A.I, General Prisons Board (hereafter G.P.B.), Clonmel Borstal Memoranda, 1908–30, GPB/XB5).

26 See Reidy, , Ireland's moral hospital, pp 73–4.Google Scholar

27 Borstal Institution bell scale (N.A.I, G.P.B. Correspondence register (hereafter C.R.), GPB/2132/1911).

28 Osborough, , Borstal in Ireland, p. 64.Google Scholar The special grade was part of the classification system and was reserved for inmates who were well-behaved and showed promise in education and training.

29 Osborough, , Borstal in Ireland, p. 64.Google Scholar

30 Borstal Institute bell scale.

31 Foucault, , Discipline and punish, p. 154.Google Scholar

32 Regulations with respect to borstal institutions for males in Ireland, 29 July 1909 (N.A.I., G.P.B.).

33 Correspondence relating to Borstal institution for males in Ireland: instructions for carrying out regulations under the Prevention of Crime Act, 1908, 19 Nov. 1909 (N.A.I.,G.P.B.).

34 Ruggles-Brise address to the International Penitentiary Congress, Proceedings of the International Penitentiary Congress, p.12.

35 John Connor to Major Dobbin, 24 Apr. 1913 (N.A.I., G.P.B., C.R., GPB/1911/1835).

36 G.P.B. to Major Dobbin, 26 July 1913 (N.A.I., G.P.B., C.R., GPB/1911/1835).

37 Medical reports (N.A.I., G.P.B., C.R., GPB/1835/1911).

38 Report from the Departmental Committee on Prisons, vi, 1 [C 7702–1], H.L. 1895, x,32.

39 M.O. inquiry on fitness of inmate for work and physical drill (N.A.I., C.B.M., 1908–30, GPB/XB5).

40 Disciplinary reports (N.A.I., G.P.B., C.R., GPB/1291/1918).

41 One of the earliest known examples in Ireland was a refuge for discharged women at Harcourt Road in Dublin in 1821, founded by two female members of the Society of Friends. By 1896, three societies existed in Dublin, two in Belfast and one in Limerick. The societies in Dublin were associated with one or other of the main churches while the Limerick Prisoners’ Aid Society was non-denominational. It was on this organisation that the Borstal Association of Ireland would style itself.

42 Hood, , Borstal reassessed, pp 162–3.Google Scholar See also Leslie, Shane, Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise: a memoir of the founder of Borstal (London, 1938).Google Scholar The patrons of the English Borstal Association would include the home secretary, the lord chief justice and the archbishop of Canterbury. This was in contrast to the B.A.I. whose patrons were the Roman Catholic parish priest of Clonmel and the mayor of the town.

43 Born in Marlfield House, Clonmel in 1840, Bagwell was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, being called to the bar in 1866, though he never practised law. Upon his return to Marlfield in 1883 he commenced work on his most noted historical work, Ireland under the Tudors. See O’Dowd, Mary, ‘Richard Bagwell’, Oxford Dictionary ofNational Biography.Google Scholar He died at Marlfield in December 1918 and a party of twenty borstal inmates and eight warders accompanied his remains to their final resting place.

44 Regulations with respect to borstal institutions for males, 29 July 1909 (N.A.I.,G.P.B.).

45 Rothman, David J., ‘Perfecting the prison’ in Morris, N. and Rothman, D. (eds), The Oxford history of the prison: the practice of punishment in western society (Oxford, 1998), p. 106.Google Scholar

46 Regulations with respect to borstal institutions for males in Ireland, 29 July 1909 (N.A.I., G.P.B.)

47 Dobbin to G.P.B., 3 Aug. 1914 (N.A.I., G.P.B., GPB/5044/1914).

48 Casey to Birrell, Mar. 1913 (N.A.I., C.S.O.R.P., 11/81/1913).

49 In situations where it was unrealistic for the B.A.I. to maintain direct contact with a discharged inmate because of distance, the supervision functions were, in a way, sub¬contracted to a suitable agency closer at hand. This often included another discharged prisoners' aid society or indeed the Society of the St Vincent de Paul.

50 O’Connor to Dobbin, 11 Mar. 1919 (N.A.I., G.P.B., C.R., GPB/2939/1919).

51 Dobbin to Ballinamore Sub-district R.I.C., 14 Mar. 1919 (N.A.I., G.P.B., C.R.,GPB/2939/1919).

52 Ballinamore Sub-district R.I.C. to Dobbin, 20 Mar. 1919 (N.A.I., G.P.B., C.R.,GPB/2939/1919).

53 See Reidy, Ireland’s ‘moral hospital’.