Easy to sit back in 2016 and castigate the practices of 50 years ago.
“In a document dating from late 1967, Dr JR Hawkings, a psychiatrist attached to Richmond Hill, wrote to the Home Office asking permission to conduct a drug trial on boys who were "impulsive, explosive, irritable, restless and aggressive".”
These “children” were males aged 15 plus. They had been sent to “approved schools” because of their uncontrollable behaviour. Faced with a building full of such males who were "impulsive, explosive, irritable, restless and aggressive" drastic measures were needed. They did not have the benefit of armies of social workers, psychiatrists, do-gooders and the like all trying to excuse their behaviour. Their brief was to contain the miscreants and keep to a minimum any damage they might inflict on themselves and, more importantly, others around them.
Today such “children” would be referred by the courts to the Youth Offending Teams that proliferate across the land. They might be “asked” to attend a special “education” establishment which is nothing of the sort but merely a location where they might be confined for an hour or two now and then.
This would ensure their smooth and uninterrupted transition from the so-called Youth Justice System to the adult version.