Woodyanders Tough new inmate Carlin (superbly played with riveting intensity by Ray Winstone) gets sent to a British borstal for young offenders. Despite conflicts with both the guards and fellow inmates, Carlin soon becomes the new top con in the joint.Director Alan Clarke does a tremendous (and terrifying) job of presenting prison as an absolute claustrophobic and dehumanizing hellhole seething with rage, hatred, and violence in which the strong prey on the weak, only the fittest and most ruthless survive, and the venal staff prove to be every bit as savage and predatory as the hardened criminals. Roy Minton's hard-hitting script not only pulls no punches in its stark and unflinching addressing of such harsh and troubling issues as racism, corruption, and the abuse of power and authority, but also offers a frighteningly persuasive argument for exactly why prison reformation doesn't work due to the way it puts far too much emphasis on punishment and deprivation.The uniformly excellent acting from a top-rate cast rates as another substantial asset: Mick Ford provides several welcome and much-appreciated moments of delightfully brash humor as impudent intellectual anarchist Archer, Julian Firth contributes a heart-wrenching portrayal as the frail and vulnerable Davis (the sequence in which Davis gets rape by three boys in a greenhouse is extremely difficult to watch), Phil Daniels snivels it up nicely as weaselly loudmouth Richards, and John Judd impresses with his fierce turn as fearsome and pitiless head officer Mr. Sands. Phil Meheux's stark cinematography gives this picture a potent sense of documentary-like realism. Brutal and disturbing for sure, but still quite powerful and impossible to shake just the same.

BA_Harrison Had the Borstal system not been abolished in 1982, Alan Clarke's controversial drama Scum could have been used as a potent form of crime deterrence, the film's gritty, documentary-like approach being so harrowing that any potentially delinquent viewers would surely think twice about flouting the law for fear of finding themselves banged up in a concrete hellhole with a bunch of sociopathic thugs. If shown as part of the school curriculum, teenage crime figures would surely have dropped quicker than Davis's pants in the film's notorious greenhouse rape scene.Being buggered while potting plants is just one of the many dangers that face the young inmates of Scum's tough correctional facility. Even hard-nut Carlin (Ray Winstone) feels the pain, receiving a thorough beating from both his fellow cons AND the screws, before eventually establishing himself as 'the daddy'—the top dog amongst the prisoners—by cracking a few select skulls (his methods including the classic 'snooker balls in the sock' trick). Tensions run high when one of the inmates commits suicide after the death of his wife, but when Davis (Julian Firth), seriously depressed after his assault, slashes his wrists during the night, anger and resentment boil over, resulting in rioting.Chock full of strong language, extreme brutality, and unflinching scenes of racism, suicide and rape, Scum is still extremely shocking stuff, even by today's standards, but is far from exploitative: director Clarke simply tells it like it is, showing us the harsh reality of life behind the walls of the UK's borstals, where every day is a lesson in survival. His film benefits greatly from memorable performances from the excellent cast, both young and old, and a genuine atmosphere of hopelessness. Don't expect an uplifting ending: this ain't no Shawshank Redemption.

geminiredblue There was a time in Great Britain's history when they had a juvenile detention system known as "the borstal". The theory behind it was to allow young criminals a chance at rehabilitation. According to this film, it was a completely screwed-up plan that resulted in "making" criminals rather than "reforming" them. It resulted in the entire system being disbanded in the early 80s. SCUM has been known as the most controversial movie to ever come out of England. The reasons being that it depicts the sheer brutality one would find inside a borstal. The film is also iconic for starring a very young Ray Winstone in the role of juvenile delinquent Carlin. At the start of the film, we watch as Carlin and two others are brought to a newer, harsher borstal. Upon stepping foot inside, they are led one-by-one into the headmaster's office and subjected to insults and threats by the wardens. From there, things only get worse as they are led onto A-wing and meet "the Daddy", a vicious punk and his two lackeys. But Carlin won't stand for the way things are for long. And before you know it, he's taking over as the new Daddy. The only character who seems to be unaffected by the constant, underlying sense of menace, is Archer. His solution is to cause as much trouble to the system as he can, in his own way. Which includes refusing to eat meat, wear shoes, and becoming a Muslim. Overall, the film is brutal. Often times, it shows that the wardens (known as "screws") are no better than the crooks. If they're not threatening the young boys, they're ineffectively (and even half-heartedly) trying to build their character. At turns tragic, violent, and occasionally humorous, it will leave you chilled to the bone. And if you think it's all a little hard to believe, several British ex-criminals have admitted they started a life of crime simply to survive inside the borstal.

evans1010 The 1979 film Scum represents the reality of life inside a 1970's British borstal under the welfare model of British youth justice. The welfare model recognises the influence of socio-economic factors on criminality (Hale, Hayward, Wahidin and Wincup, 2005). Borstals were introduced by the 1908 Children Act. The intention of these institutions was to keep young offenders out of prisons and rehabilitate them through education, support, trade training, exercise, discipline and religious training (Warder and Wilson, 1973). The restorative approach of today alternatively, is designed to reintegrate offenders into society through community based, offence appropriate punishment, commonly known as community service and promotes individual responsibility via direct reparation to the victim (Walklate, 2007). The reformative intentions of the borstal system as identified by Warder and Wilson (1973) are evident throughout the film. However, Scum also shows the corruption of these intentions, possibly most apparent throughout the film is the violence experienced by the inmates at the hands of sadistic officers under the justification of discipline. In the opening scenes an officer is seen attacking inmate Carlin with the explanation; 'speak when you're spoken to'. Gershoff (2002) suggests that punishment such as this may increase undesired behaviour, finding associations between parental corporal punishment and increased aggression, antisocial behaviour, physical abuse and criminality. This could explain the violence between inmates evident throughout the film. For example, Pongo, the 'daddy' of 'A' wing wakes Carlin with a Glasgow kiss to which the officers turn a blind eye and accuse Carlin of fighting. Carlin, bound by an unwritten code of conduct, explains his injuries with the often repeated 'I fell sir'. Such perpetuation of undesirable behaviour was reported by Cockett (1967), who noted that 60% of youths re-offended within the first year after release from borstal. This also indicates failings in the reformative intention of borstals. In comparison, the youth justice statistics for England and Wales (2010/11) show a re-offending rate of 33.3% for 2009/10. Reoffending was slightly higher among young offenders released from custody at 69.7% compared to 65.9% among those given community sentences. However, Donoghue (2012) raises concerns that courts have failed to apply community justice principles appropriately. Scum also addresses the reformative intention of borstal through physical exercise. One particular scene depicting a basket ball game however, descends into racial segregation, failing to uphold the reformative intentions. Scum also shows physical exercise as a method of discipline, for example when Archer is sentenced to solitary for dubbing 'I am happy' on a wall, he is denied physical exercise. The officers and governors abuse the discretion afforded to them by the system using this 'insolence' as an excuse to punish the trouble maker despite him not breaking any specific rules. Among other things, Archer is particularly vocal about his atheism. However, according to one of the officers 'they're all atheists'. This suggests that the system encouraged religious behaviour such as attending church without encouraging spirituality. A study by Piazza, Bering and Ingram (2011) demonstrates why true belief may reduce re-offending while atheism disguised by religious behaviour will not. Piazza et al found that children who genuinely believed they were being watched by an invisible person while completing a task, refrained from cheating to the same extent as children who were actually supervised, compared to children who believed they were unsupervised. Whitehead (2011) however, reviewed the benefits of post-release community chaplaincy on re-offending within the modern restorative justice approach. The emphasis here being on providing pro- social support and promoting moral behaviour rather than encouraging religious behaviour only. Borstal also claimed to reform offenders through education and trade training, providing them with the skills required to gain a job on release. However, the film highlights failings with a scene between Archer and another inmate, Woods asks Archer to read him a letter to which Archer enquires "Haven't they taught you to read yet?" Woods replies "I can't understand what they mean, you know and I don't like asking." It is likely that Woods is dyslexic and the system cannot address such needs. In 1966 Banks (cited in Warder and Wilson, 1973) raised concerns about increasing numbers of mentally, socially and educationally troubled boys entering borstal. In 1968, Alpher-Benedict noted the introduction of group therapy sessions in borstals, presumably to address these issues. Such a session is portrayed in Scum, it is lead by the only female member of staff who fails to address any issues raised by the boys. The boys are equally unforthcoming, bound by the unwritten rules of borstal. Snow and Sanger (2011) consider the difficulties in implementing modern restorative justice reparation conferencing between offender and victim, due to undetected language problems in young offenders such as Woods. However, they suggest involvement from speech-language pathologists in policy and programmes regarding such individuals, rather than institutionalised group sessions, to address these issues and reduce re-offending. Scum identified the failings of borstal however, studies such as Whitehead (2011) and Snow and Sanger (2011) indicate concerns raised in the film, such as religion and education which remain within the youth justice system today. However, reformative methods of restorative justice such as community punishment aim to reintegrate and reform offenders in more successful ways than those attempted by borstal. These methods also reduce the number of young offenders within institutions, preventing abuses of the system such as those identified in Scum. While statistics appear to indicate a reduction in re-offending rates and suggest that community punishment is more effective than custodial sentencing, there remains concern (Donoghue, 2012) about the effectiveness of restorative justice. Considering Scum as a point of reference it does not seem appropriate to return to a punitive system, leaving young offenders vulnerable to abuse. However, while Scum may represent the reality of life in a 1970's British borstal, it also represents a corrupted system. It is possible that a truly reformative punitive system with measures in place to protect young offenders and intentions such as those described by (Warder and Wilson, 1973) could improve youth justice and assuage public concern.