Evening star., 1953-09-08
Leadership From the Top

one OF the evident handlcapS faced by
public and private agencies dealing with the
problem of juvenile delinquency in Washington
is the lack of effective machinery for co-ordi-
mating their efforts and producing a program of
action that could command community support
The Commissioners would do well to con-
slider this situation anew, in the face of an
alarming increase in juvenile delinquency, and
to determine whether the co-ordinating
machinery can best be supplied under their
leadership. AS chairman of the newly created
Council on Law Enforcement in the District
Commissioner Spencer could appropriately
place this matter before the members of the
council and ask for recommendations.
One of the most successful community
enterprises in recent years was the establish
ment, by the Commissioners, of the Armed
Services Hospitality Committee It's function
has been to coordinate the various services
and activities of agencies concerned with the
recreation and entertainment of soldiers on
leave in Washington. The appointment of the
committee by the Commissioners gave it
prestige and a semiof1cal status that went
a long way to account for its success in the
past few years.
Mrs. Henry Grattan Doyle has been the
chairman of this committee. Her experience
may have influenced her last year, as retiring
chairman of the Juvenile Court Advisory Com
mittee, to propose comparable Setup for CO.
ordinating the work of agencies dealing with
juvenile delinquency. She wanted the Com
missioners to set up the co-ordinating commit
tee on juvenile delinquency, but they decided
it should be done through the United Com
munity Services. Experience is revealing that
without official support or standing it is prac-
tically impossible for a committee of the sort
to achieve the necessary coordination.
CitV'S COu0cil which
directs certain activities designed to prevent
juvenile delinquency and works as a clearing
house between other agencies, is part OF the
city government-With control over expenditure
of about So million a year 1t has found no
cure for juvenile delinquency but it is at least
dealing with the problem on city-wide basis,
supported by public funds. Washington may
not need to go that far at this time. Certainly
the Commissioners should take some leader
ship however, in establishing a co-ordinating
committee and giving it all the support within
their power. If such committee did nothing
more than to spot the weakest points in our
present attempts to cope with the problem, it
would be helpful.
Juvenile Court seems to be Swamped,
struggling along under burden of cases that
has increased enormously without any COM
penSating increase in personnel required to
handle the load. The same condition seems to
apply in the Districts Department of Public
Welfare, responsible for much of the institu-
tional care provided by the city for juveniles,
including delinquents. There is no faint refiec-
ton of the growing problem of juvenile delin-
quency in the public funds appropriated to
combat it. The lack of coordination between
the private and public agencies is the source
of continuing complaint from the private
agencies. Achievement of such cooperation is
made more difficult by the unusual secrecy of
proceedings in Juvenile Court-secrecy designed
to protect the child-which works to deny the
availability of case records to private agencies.
If the establishment under the CommiS
sioners auspices of a co-ordinating committee
is feasible-as it certainly seems to bet would
be of great advantage to the community.