A series of eight programmes

The Borstal Allocation Centre at Strangeways is a prison within a prison. It holds up to 500 young men and boys aged 15 to 21. In theory they should only stay a few days, but in practice they can find themselves inside for as long as three months.

Although segregated from the adults, this is a taste of real prison life for boys whose average reading age is 12, and whose mathematical ability is no better than that of a nine-year-old. Yet here they are, experiencing the realities of our obsolete and overcrowded prison system.

A recent Parliamentary report has stated that the practice of keeping such young boys in a prison is a scandal. And Assistant Governor Frank Weigh asks, 'What kind of society is it that is producing these young criminals?'

(Final programme next Wednesday)