Evening star., 1953-12-21
; Officials Ask
Facts on
Juvenile
Raspberry, Murroy
And Shea Urge End
To Court Restraints
BY Miriom Ottenber1

'"'0" SAtSUOGtA
Two police chiefs and Welfare
Director Gerard M. Shea all said
they wanted more information
from Juvenile Court in testi-
mony before the Senate Juvenile
Delinquency subcommittee to-
day.
Police Chief Robert v. Muir
ray and Park Police Chief Mark
Raspberry insisted no harm
would come to the children and
police would be helped if Ju-
venile Court would tell police
what happened to the children
when in Juvenile Court.
Mr.. Shea told the Subcommit-
tee that in spite of the Juvenile
Court judges Interpretation of
the law, he believes the Welfare
Department should be able to
exchange information with the
court in advance of a childs
commitment to the Welfare De-
partment.
Coordination Stressed.
Through recent arrangements,
he said, his department now is
able to get information from
Juvenile Court on Is fathers
monthly who are under court
orders to support public assist
ance division families.
This is helpful" he said, I'VE
believe, however, that when a
mans family is being supported
through public funds and when
that man is on probation to a
court for non-support of that
family there should be close CO.
ordination between the two agen-
cies regarding planning for that
family. Far more than financial
support is involved. We cannot
hope to attack the problem Of
parental responsibility except by
co-ordinated effort"
Additional Developments.
There were these other high
lights of the morning session be-
fore the Senate proberS:
/. Chief Murray told the SUBJ
committee he wanted the COM
munity to know that only nine
cases Of juvenile dope addiction
were discovered by police and
other authorities here during the
past fiscal year. And most of the
nine were nearly 18 years old.
2. Chief Raspberry said juve-
nile delinquency is not a major
problem with the Park Police.
but the problems he has are with
the local children and not with
the many juvenile visitors to the
Nations Capital.
3. Capt. Mary Gainey, chief
of the police Women's Bureau.
said she thought the District
juvenile court law was rather a
good one" and probation officers
of Juvenile Court do come to the
Women's Bureau to read its So
cisl case histories on girls. She
acknowledged, however, that
there was room for improvement
in the exchange of information
between the court and the Wo-
mems Bureau.
HandicapS Stressed.
Mr.. Shea drew for the subcom-
mittee picture of insufficient
services, limited staff and made
quate facilities.
Families receiving aid to- de-
pendent children not only get
too little financial help but too
little counseling, he said. He re-
ported that the average case
worker in the public assistance
division has a case load of 144
families.
Mr.. Shea noted that three
fourthS of the children given
service under this program are in
need because of the absence of a
He called this IAN
alarming indication of family
breakdown"
Reporting on the protective
services unit, which works with
families before the children get
into serious trouble, Mr.. Shea
noted that during the past fiscal
year the unit dealt with 484
families involving 2,117 children.
AS a result of working with these
children and their families, he
Continued on Page B-1. Col. ~