In 1979 the new Tory government led by by Margaret Thatcher and Home Secretary, Willie Whitelaw, abolished borstals for young offenders and introduced a new system of ‘youth detention centres’ employing harsh, quasi-military discipline. They proudly claimed in their party manifesto that they were going to “experiment with a tougher regime as a short, sharp shock for young criminals”.
Using a series of fascinating images taken inside two such institutions in the mid 1980s, Glenochil and Kirklevington Grange, by radical photographer Carlos Guarita and the memories of an inmate Colin Adamson, this photo-essay presentation tells the story, first hand, of what it was like to be incarcerated in a ‘youth detention centre’ and to be subject to ‘short, sharp, shock’.
Event details
Date: , 2025
Time:
Location: Incarceration Room - Level 1
Venue: M Shed, BS1 4RN
Price: Free
With: Carlos Guarita, Colin Adamson
I went to Haslar Christmas week 1981, first offence stole a motorbike to ride around the woods on. I actually had a job, apprentice butcher. It was pretty grim, I got stabbed In the chest with a red pen in reception by “benny hill” for forgetting to say sir, Samways “ you owe me one” used to dish out full slaps on the back when we were washing and shaving, the M.O punched a lad in the forehead for going on sick parade with a headache, he said
“ you’ve got a headache now but here’s an aspirin to cure it”. We were making green bed covers on hand looms that were copies of preindustrial ones, stamp, shuttle, pull, stamp, shuttle, pull for hours. PE, circuits, 44 laps of the football pitch Saturday afternoons in vest and shorts in brutal weather, for the blue ties, the reds got open air circuits, can’t remember what the green ties did. I got fined for dust on my bed frame, apparently even pigs don’t live in filth like that, said the governor. Luckily I got in the kitchens at week 3 and things got easier cos we we missed a lot of other stuff due to work. My mate was digging in the garden field, dig a trench, dig another one and fill the first trench, work your way up the field while Pritchard shouts abuse and rode about on what looked like a post office cycle. They did grow some nice cabbage and sprouts though, basically a waste of 8 weeks and 5 days. I was back at work the day after release as if nothing had happened.
I was in campsfield house Kidlington Oxford detention centre
In 1981 at the time the seven tiers song came out 🤣
It was an absolute s******* of a place
The prison officers were brutal kicking punching and slapping people
It certainly taught me a lesson 😭
I was there in winter 1980, Hell on earth, that’s what the place was. I can remember the gym screw Mr Moreton, he had us doing circuits till we was about throwing up. Heavy snow fell and he had us jogging round the perimeter fence on the playing fields, in a vest, pair of shorts and a pair of plimsolls in snowdrifts! Then there was Mr Johnson a Scottish bloke with a beard, he had you scrubbing floors up and down, for hours and then he would scuff them up, for you to have to do all over again. Mr Veal, he used to come to my dorm at nightime and ask me when I was going home. I used to reply “Christmas Eve Sir” as thankfully, that was my release date. He used to reply “are you sure about that? And then start to sing me Christmas carols. A proper wind up and worry that was! I remember doing parade in the dark, early each morning, then off to work. I used to work in the kitchens, as I was sixteen and never had to go to education. Those were long days from early morning till late at night. But it helped the time to go quicker. I know one thing, when I was released, it was one of the best days of my life and I was as fit as a fiddle! lol… 🤣