Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-08
Local Training Schools Made
Subject for Drastic
Criticism.
RECOMMENDS STATES
TAKE OVER JURISDICTION
Commission Describes Methods Of
Punishment Used in Institutions
Where Youths Are Prisoners.
BY the Associated Press

BY the Associated Press.
Criticism of the Federal Government
for placing its youthful lawbreakers on
the same basis as hardened criminals
and an arTaignment of conditions un-
der which child offenders are confined
was made today by the now disbanded
Wickersham Commission. Drastic
criticism of local juvenile institutions
was included In the report.
The report, sent to President Hoover
today, said the Federal Government is
trailing far behind the more progress
sive States in its treatment of youthful
law violators. It recommended that the
treatment Of juvenile delinquency be
left almost entirely to the States.
Three Federal institutions here-the
National Training School for Girls at
Muirkirk, Md; the Training School for
Colored Girls on Conduit Road, and the
National Training School for Boys on
the Bladensburg road-were singled out
for particular criticism in the report.
Cites Use Of Handouts.
The report cited the Handwriting of
girls in the National Training School
features, and also asserted that no
program Of vocational training or
recreation was provided. It was less
severe in its criticism of the two other
institutions
The report included a lengthy re-
view of the findings of DR.. Miriam
van Waters, consultant to the Har-
ward Law School Crime Survey, who
investigated conditions in the five penal
institutions where children convicted
under Federal statutes are imprisoned.
DR.. Van Waters reviewed the reports
Of Stacking of boys in leg irons and
the misuse of the hogging system at
the National Training School, appear
ing in The Washington Star under
date Of May Z. 1880, and again June
ut is matter for some interpretatiye
comment" she reported, that the
In the institutions for the reform Of
young children"
Time Spent In IdleneSs.
In discussing the Muirkirk Training
School for Girls, about 20 miles from
Washington, the report stated that the
staff numbers four women and four
men and that no adequate program of
school vocational training, recreation
or outdoor life is provided. 1t asserted
that most of the girls time Is spent In
ldleness, maintenance tasks occupying
but brief time.
The monotony Of life and the re-
stricted activities cause frequent out
breaks and disturbances, 1t was said, the
men employees usually being called upon
to quell these.
Punishment rooms are in the base
ment and girl inmates are sometimes
put in handouts, possibly a necessary
precaution when suicide Is threatened,
and the exposed hot-water pipes over
head offer opportunities.
The school has no hospital and no
trained nurse, according to the report,
which stated large proportion Of the
girls are suffering from social diseases
Medical service is given by visiting
woman physician twice a week and
babies are cared for by their mothers
in their own rooms.
Should Go Elsewhere.
In concluding, the report stated
there seems no good reason why Fed
eral cases should be sent here"
1T is recommended they be sent
elsewhere Within a few miles IS the
Maryland State School for Girls, at
MontroSe, a modern institution with
exceptionally good opportunities for
outdoor life, vocational training and
psychiatric service"
Dormitories at the National Training
School for Boys are overcrowded to the
extent cubic air space is probably in
violation of proper health regulations"
the report stated.
In this school, she said, housing Is
of the cottage type. The night super
visor is placed on gallery porch above
the dormitories, an arrangement unsat-
isfactory to the requirements of mental
hygiene While the family homes are
spotlessly clean, light and airy. the in
door time of the boys is spent for the
most part in basement rooms, dingy
and unattractive.
1.-The central dining room is poorly
lighted, crowded and dismal. The
kitchen, Anticipated, damp and insan-
itary. Appropriations for a new serv-
ice building have been requested by the
administration"
Concerning the personnel Of the
Training School for Boys, DR.. Van
Waters made the following observations:
1T would be an interesting subject
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