Evening star., 1927-12-06
BUREAU ASSA|LED
|. BY Il. VAN W|NKLE|
Director Bitterly Scores Re-
movaI of Children in Fiery
Protest to Board.

Lieut.. Nina G. Van Wrinkle. director
of the Woman's Bureau OF the Police
Department. today unloosed her pre-
viously pentup feelings with respect
to the movements to- establish the
House of Detention temporarily in the
old st. James Hotel and to relieve
her department of jurisdiction over
children under II years of age.
In a 13-page closely typewriter let
ter to the District Commissioners,
which fairly bristles With Indignation.
Mrs. Van Wrinkle declared that the st.
James Hotel, even after extensive al
terations, would be an undesirable
place to shelter children. She also Bit
terly attacked the Bureau Of Etficien-
cy experts who investigated the House
of Detention and on whose report the
! bureau based it's recommendation to
| the Commissioners that control over
Juveniles detained by the police be
transferred to the Board of Public
Welfare.
Says City Searched.
Washington has been searched for
a suitable building, convertible at rea-
sonable cost into a house of deten-
tion," said Mrs. Van Wrinkle. Every
old hotel tSt. James and Shoreham
included) has been inspected. All of
them are in bad condition and insult
ed to detention. Ceilings are down,
walls are bad, plumbing defective.
THE st. James would cost $3.50, 900
for repairs (based on the $4,000 cost
of repairing our present buildng). and
even the st. James would remain an
undesirable place for the shelter of
children, because of it's location, it's
lack OF space for outdoor recreation
and the extraordinary cost of admin
iStering such a mass of q building
1t has high-pressure boiler requiring
a minimum of two tons of coal per
diem and three men two licensed engi-
neers and one helper, to whom the
hotel paid 1925, $175 and 1925 month
ly. We have no such employees and
no appropriation for their hire.
Unless structure is properly divided
and living rooms properly located, the
| problem of supervision cannot be met
with the small staff we now employ
As we are now constructed for the
| efficient administration of the present
| building We need an additional janitor
a relief matron in order that two may
| always be on duty each hours.
| three more attendants, a nurse and a
| We are now dependent on unframed
policemen for relief in the absence OF
civilian male employees and police
matrons and police women for relief
during absences of female employees. "
Scores Bureau Inquiry.
Mrs. Van Wrinkle expressed the opin
ion that the efficiency bureaus inyesti
cation of the house Of detention was
obviously undertaken destructively,
and declared that the issue involved ir
the proposed transfer of Jurisdiction
over the children SHOULD not be left
to unqualified Investigators who were
informed by openly antagonistic foes
CT the Woman's Bureau and Board Of
Public Welfare"
Thee ontroversy arose out Of com
plants made by Joseph Sandford
chief probation officer. to Mr.. Howard
Gill, efficiency expert of the Bureau
of Efficiency" said the latter. 'Mr
Sandford has since been appointed tC
Mr.. Gill's position in the bureau. II
is curious, but none the less a notable
fact, that the efficiency experts have
never indicated any expert knowledge
nor have they been admitted by any
one any where to be experts on the
subject of detention and care of per
sons under lawful restraint. TIE mer
who interviewed me had no previous
education, knowledge or training in
work Of this kind, nor have they evel
interested themselves in this service
THE efforts of the investigators
We're not used to discover whether ol
not real efficiency under all circum
stances exists, but to magnify out o.
all proportion alleged incidents in the
failure of employees, which failures
even If established by the investi
gators, bear so slight a relation to the
work as a whole as to be absolutely
negligible if tested by informed people
| or fair tribunal. Even if established
it is indicative only of the lapse of al
individual and not the failure of the
plan of service or the system. 1t wa:
an attempt on the part of the in
vestigators. who already had theil
minds made up, to find something
wrong with the service in order L
justify their preconceived conclusions
Cites Main Questions.
'The main questions for record are
as follows:
Children should be separated from
adults but in the accomplishment OF
| this 1t is not necessary to transfer the
the Board of Public Welfare.
when children and adults are in
separate Buildings, with proper equip.
| ment the problem of administration
| is simplified and were this accom-
| plished by the Woman's Bureau there
would remain no rea son for the trans.
fer of children to any other agency.
1.-The Woman's Bureau, in the end
| reduces the cost of administration be.
| cause of the availability of service
| useful to the House of Detention and
not elsewhere available except by ap.
pointment of special persons on extra
| salaries. The types of service rend
| cred require decent men with a
| natural inclination to care for boys.
! Our detailed men have men and now
meet this need satisfactorily without
| tremendous added cost to the District.
These men are semi-incapacitated for
| police service. The House personnel
| is civilian and should include at least
three additional persons.
"If all other social agencies will
attend to their own needs and care
for their own charges after court
commitment to their custody and care,