Court Opinion

ID: 9450570
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:52:11.422386+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:22.865697
License: Public Domain

WASHINGTON, Circuit Judge.
I concur in the result, and in the opinion of the majority, with the exception of Part II.
I concur in affirmance of the judgment rendered by the District Court, because at least it places appellant in a hospital in the first instance, thus offering the possibility that treatment will improve his mental condition, and because I do not think reversal is required by anything that occurred at appellant’s trial, or at the Juvenile Court level. As to the latter, counsel’s complaint that the social records were not made available seems insufficient to require reversal here, if only because no adequate showing was made to the Juvenile Court that the records were relevant to the purposes for which counsel requested theni.
*262As to Part II of the opinion, I think we should emphasize the responsibility of the District Court, and of this court, to provide meaningful consideration to the propriety of the Juvenile Court’s waiver of jurisdiction in a particular case, where on proper motion a strong showing is made that the waiver was improvident. And I think we should emphasize also that non-criminal treatment of juveniles should be the rule, and adult criminal treatment of juveniles the exception. See Harling v. United States, 111 U.S. App.D.C. 174, at 177-178, 295 F.2d 161, at 164-165 (1961). But I agree that in the instant case the showing made was not such as to justify us in setting aside the waiver. It is a fair inference from the record before us that one of the reasons why the Juvenile Court waived jurisdiction was because appellant was seriously disturbed and the Juvenile Court lacked facilities adequately to treat him.1 Under all the circumstances I do not believe the Juvenile Court abused its discretion in waiving jurisdiction. I do not read the majority opinion as going further in its actual holding.
The Juvenile Court confronts a multitude of difficulties in dealing with an aggressive and mentally disturbed youth, over whom the Court must lose its authority when he reaches the age of 21, and for whom in the meantime the Court can provide little in the way of psychiatric care and treatment. The need for improved facilities for such youths is well pointed out in the following article in the Washington Post of September 21, 1964:
DISTURBED DELINQUENTS LACKING FACILITIES HERE
By Dan Morgan
The 17-year-old boy was mentally disturbed and in danger of harming himself or others.
Doctors at D.C. General Hospital felt he could make progress with intensive treatment and supervision in a tightly controlled setting.
Last week, a Juvenile Court judge sadly acknowledged no such facility was available for him in the metropolitan area.
So the judge, Marjorie M. Lawson, did the only thing possible. She temporarily committed him to the District Welfare Department’s children center in Laurel, Md., with instructions that the case be reviewed in 90 days to see if a more suitable placement could be found.
In its dealings with mentally disturbed delinquents, the Court almost daily is handcuffed by the inadequacy of present facilities.
, “It all comes back to the fact that we don’t have a place in the community for this type of child,” Judge Lawson said of the 17-year-old.
“I suppose Laurel isn’t the answer in about three or four cases a week, but it’s the only place at the Court’s disposal,” said Dr. Laurence L. Frost, until recently the head of the Court’s youth guidance clinic.
To fill a desperate need, the children’s center — never intended to be a receptacle for disturbed children — • has taken on the task of giving psychiatric care to young delinquents as best it can.
It’s difficult to treat disturbed youths at an institution designed for normal ones,” Welfare Director Donald Brewer admits.
For one thing, the center is not equipped to care for older, aggressive, neurotic youngsters, he said.
More than 80 of the 726 children confined there under court order need some kind of treatment, but *263there is only one full-time psychiatrist assigned.
Under this psychiatrist are several part-time psychiatric consultants and five clinical psychologists who work with all the children.
At Maple Glenn, for young delinquent boys, there is a ten-bed cottage occupied by children who cannot function adequately in the other cottages. Cedar Knoll, for older boys, has a maximum security cottage that mixes aggressive delinquents with certain disturbed children.
Considering the limited facilities, rehabilitation often is surprisingly successful, says chief psychiatrist Beryl Kester. Some children with “borderline psychosis” have developed stability after as little as nine months.
But Dr. Kester points out that many of the children probably would have been committed to a residential treatment center if one had been available to the Court.
Winifred Thompson head of the center, says many of the children actually are there “by default.”
Dr. Kester has told the Public Health Advisory Council that a residential facility with 240 beds is needed in the area.
Aggressive youngsters pose a special problem, Miss Thompson says. Though it happens rarely, Cedar Knoll has sometimes been unable to cope with a youngster. In that case the Welfare Department has no alternative but to tell the Court the youth is beyond control.
“The Court has to let him go,” Miss Thompson said.
Mingle With Adults
In Washington itself, the only round-the-clock facility for disturbed children is St. Elizabeths Hospital, where they mingle with adult patients.
A youth center is now being developed there for day recreation and schooling for the children.
Even this less-than-ideal setting is unavailable to Juvenile Court, however. It cannot commit children to the Hospital because it is an adult institution.
Some youngsters under Court jurisdiction do get there, though, through a commitment by the Mental Hygiene Commission. The child must first be certified a psychotic.
Welfare Director Brewer feels the city urgently needs a centralized inpatient facility for all children. Health Department out-patient clinics now serve only, a handful of children.
The National Institute of Mental Health estimated that only 107 children could be treated here at any one time.
This is only slightly more than the number of children under Court jurisdiction receiving treatment at Laurel. The number does not include thousands of other non-delinquent disturbed youths.
Particularly Urgent
Because of inadequate phychiatric resources, juvenile court judges may be under pressure to waive certain types of children to adult court in hopes that the child can get- treatment through the more ample services available there.
Once out of juvenile jurisdiction, however, there is no guarantee the youth will get treatment rather than jail.
Suburban communities feel the lack of adequate mental health installations, too. Studies have shown only a tiny fraction of the Nation’s disturbed children can get care. But District officials point out that in urban areas such as Washington, with minority and low-income populations, the need is particularly pressing.
*264Before Bazelon, Chief Judge, and Fahy, Washington, Danaher, Bastían, Burger, Wright and McGowan, Circuit Judges, in Chambers.
Order
PER CURIAM.
On consideration of appellant’s motion for leave to file a petition for rehearing en banc, the time having expired, and of appellant’s subsequently filed motion for leave to withdraw the aforesaid motion for leave to file a petition for rehearing en banc, the time having expired, it is
Ordered by the Court en banc that appellant’s motion for leave to withdraw his motion for leave to file a petition for rehearing en banc be granted, and the Clerk is directed to mark the records of his office reflecting the withdrawal of appellant’s motion for leave to file a petition for rehearing en banc.

. See Juvenile Court, Policy Memorandum No. 7, November 30, 1959: “The determinative factors which will be considered by the Judge in deciding whether the Juvenile Court’s jurisdiction over such offenses will be waived are the following:
♦ * •
“8.. The prospects for adequate protection of the public and the likelihood of reasonable rehabilitation of the juvenile (if he is found to have committed the alleged offense) by the use of procedures, services and facilities currently available to the Juvenile Court.”