IN DEP
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40. The multi-purpose institution called the Begonia Road Boys' Home is extensively used and is frequently full to its capacity of a hundred and sixty. Not only does it take in boys who have been arrested or remanded, or have been committed for a maximum of six months' residential training under the Juvenile Offenders Ordinance, but it serves as a Home for boys on probation whom the court may order to reside at a stated place, usually because their own home conditions are so unsatisfactory that supervision alone might not succeed. This means that on the remand side there has to be security without a prison- house atmosphere, whereas on the probation side a semi-disciplined programme of social adjustment is followed in conditions which are made as 'open' as possible. The balance of emphasis requires unusual understanding and co-operation on the part of the staff. 180 juveniles were admitted to the Probation Home and reports were submitted to juvenile courts on every boy who had been remanded for inquiries. These reports are based on close observation of the boys by super- visors responsible for them. They give information about their response to the environment of the Home and behaviour generally, and they make a valuable addition to the probation officers' reports. Begonia Road Boys' Home has to accept a markedly growning number of juveniles suffering from some degree of physical or mental handicap.
41. Ma Tau Wai Girls' Home caters for smaller numbers than the Boys' Home, and serves a larger combination of purposes. It is a place of detention for arrested girls awaiting appearance in court, and is an approved institution under the Probation of Offenders Ordinance. It is also used as a 'place of refuge' for girls with behaviour problems though not necessarily guilty of criminal offences. Delinquency may be a symptom of some more general trouble, and this is an experiment in providing treatment for young persons as well as juveniles, for whom neither prison nor probation nor any other statutory form of correc- tion is appropriate or adequate. The sexes are distinguished not only by the smaller proportion of women and girls taken in crime but also by the fact that for the female a moral problem and a delinquent one are often indistinguishable. Consequently although the two homes have a common purpose of rehabilitation their methods differ. Ma Tau Wai Girls' Home provides classroom teaching and informal activities, but among girls more reliance must be placed on individual casework than on group therapy, which nevertheless has a part to play in remedial treatment.
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