Evening star., 1954-09-20
Juvenile Court
Renews Plea for
Enlarged Staff
More Cuse Workers
Sought to Eose Lood
In $40l 800 Budget
BY John w. Stepp

oy yohn w. Srepp
Juvenile Court today renewed
its plea for more case workers to
ease the load on the present
staff.
Judge Edith II. Cockrill made
the latest request in presenting
fiscal 1856 budget estimates to-
falling $401, 800. This is an in
crease of $54,189 over the cur
rent appropriation.
The courts recent annual re-
port showed another increase In
juvenile delinquency complaints
for the last fiscal year. There
was a 3.5 per cent jump In the
number Of complaints over the
previous year. and q ST. per cent
increase in the number Of chill
dren involved.
Less Than Early Upswing.
This was. however, consider
ably smaller than the percentage
upswing during the previous fis-
cal year, when complaints
jumped % per cent and the
number of children involved, IS
per cent.
While Judge Cockrill asked for,
o total of IL additional employees
that would raise the overall
court staff to S6, she made her
principal plea for five more So
cial workers, raising that staff to
Il. OF these positions one would
be a case work supervisor, three
case workers would be assigned
to the juvenile division and one
to the adults division. Three ad-
ditional clerk-stenographers
would be provided as well.
Judge Cockrill has consistently
complained that personnel
shortages in these operations
have placed an undue burden on
the existing staff and have pro-
vided inadequate service to the
public.
20 Cases Per Worker.
The total case load in the
Juvenile intake section in fiscal
1854 was 2,254. an average of
20 cases per worker. Standards
set by the National Probation
Association called for an in
dividual case load of from II to
IA, the court pointed out.
In the juvenile probation de-
partment the average per worker
was 80 cases. more than double
the nationally accepted stand
ard. The adult intake sections
case load per worker averaged
200 as opposed to the nationally
recognized standard of rs, the
estimates stated.
On the effect Of such over
burdening. Judge Cockrill stated:
Dispersion of service means
that the persons supervised and
the community are not receiv-
ing the type of service and pro-
lection to which they are en-
titled.
Because Of the serious over
load the processing of cases for
court hearings is delayed and
the hearings lose much of their
effectiveness and meaning, par,
ticularly in juvenile cases.
"Also, children are frequently
involved in new difficulties be-
fore the court has had the OPP
portunity to act officially. This
is harmful to children and costly
to. the community"
Non-Support Cases Affected.
Undertaking in the adult di-
vision of the court results in in
adequate coyerage of cases and
a corresponding reduction in the
amount of money collected in
such cases as non-support, she
said. A further effect, the court
noted, Is that the staff lacks
time to try to encourage men
involved in. non-support cases to
meet their family obligations. A
result of this, in turn, is that
more mothers turn to public re-
lief in order to get enough money
to live on.
Other new positions sought
are a statistical analyst to bur-
row into the figures now organ
lied. but unanalyzed, by a loan
statistical clerk, and an informa-
tion officer to make proper re-
ferrals of calls and inquiries
made to the court. At present
the switchboard operator per-
forms this function to the gem
eral detriment of telephone serv-
ice and to the confusion Of fre-
Quently misdirected inquirers.
A secretary for the adminis-
trative assistant to the Judge
and matron to- help care for
girl delinquents in the courts
custody also are requested.
Among additional equipment
needed is betterslighting for four
interior courthouse rooms ''in
which it is almost impossible to
work now" due to bad lighting,
Judge Cockerill declared.
Municipal Court Needs.
Budgetary needs of Municipal
Court for the next fiscal year
total 1851 1882, an increase of
$5l 900 over fiscal 1854.
Among the increased reeds
listed are:
A court reporter to raise that
staff to five. Although the
number of judges was raised to
13 in 1850. the four reporters
who had been serving 10-judge
court received no additional
help. In fiscal 1858. these four
took shorthand notes that were
the equivalent of 70,720 type
written pages, a burden too
heavy for them. the court con-
tended.
A law clerk to do legal re-
search for the judges-increas-
ing the staff to three. Fiscal
1854 saw 184.462 new cases filed,
an increase of So per cent over
10dE