these people, there will be less chance of sadistic or perverted individuals obtaining entry into an atmosphere peculiarly suited to their desires.

Yet what was the District government to do but accept less than the best when the best is just not available. Thus, after committing juveniles to institutions ostensibly for retraining, we instead further warp their young minds and distort their view of adult society by exposing them to incompetent, morally undesirable adults who are in a position to exert their wishes over these people under the guise of a responsible authority.

In our hearing on institutions for the rehabilitation and treatment of juve nile delinquents, we were told that similar situations exist throughout the United States.

The second of our bills provide for Federal funds for the subsidization of special projects or promising programs that might insure us greater success in preventing or treating delinquents.

I might give a brief example here. In the city of New York and in other large cities, we find that many times as much as 75 percent of the total juvenile delinquency population comes from a very small segment-sometimes as little as 1 percent-of the total family population. These families not only produce delinquents, but they produce every other type of mental, physical, and emotional disorder known to man. They not only produce it once, but they reproduce it and multiply.

One such special project that has been proposed before this subcommittee would be the establishment of what has been called a "therapeutic community," i.e., a focusing of the entire services of a community on such a special segment of the population which has been gathered together for the sole purpose of exposing the entire family to a total plan of rehabilitation. This is to me one of the most promising new approaches to the solving of the delinquency problem.

Another interesting approach proposed by one of our witnesses is based on the hard fact that there is an inadequate number of trained personnel and this situation is bound to exist for some time to come. In view of this, we must develop newer techniques of treatment so that instead of 1, 2, or 3 years of lengthy institutional incarceration, juveniles might be exposed to 3 or 4 months of intensive 24-hour treatment based on new concepts of treatment which could result in the same degree of rehabilitation as the lengthier periods. This would allow the same number of personnel to handle many, many more delinquents.

There are only a few of the progressive approaches to solving our delinquency problem. However, I and the members of the subcommittee are firmly convinced that it is only through the major participation of the Federal Government, through the two mechanisms provided in these bills, that any appreciable change in our delinquency picture will come to pass.

Our increase in delinquency rate has come about because of changes in our family life, changes in the basic attitudes of our society and changes in our economic and social situations. We must, therefore, attack the problem not by wringing our hands and crying for a return to the good old days, but by applying new and imaginative programs and approaches and applying them with enough trained personnel and with enough of our resources, including Federal resources, if we are to save fully a fifth of our future young adults from heading for, at worst, a life of crime or, at best, a twilight world of social-economic maladjustment.

STATEMENT BY SENATOR ESTES KEFAUVER IN SUPPORT OF S. 765 AND S. 766,

MAY 4, 1959

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I wish to thank you for the opportunity of making a statement in support of S. 765 and S. 766, which were introduced by my good friend, Senator Hennings, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, and which Senators Carroll, Langer, and I are cosponsoring.

S. 765 would provide for assistance to States and institutions of higher learning for demonstrating or developing improved techniques and practices for the diminution, control, and treatment of juvenile delinquency; and S. 766 would provide for assistance to and cooperation with States and institutions of higher learning for the training of qualified personnel for work in various fields involving the prevention, treatment, and control of juvenile delinquency.

This legislation is of particular interest to me because I, as a member and former chairman of the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, have been associated with similar bills during the preceding two Congresses.

I am going to depart somewhat from what has been the custom in discussing juvenile delinquency. I am not going to cry out in alarm at the rising tide of lawlessness among our youth; this is a matter of common knowledge and the testimony is agreed on this and on the urgency of the need for action. There have been and are many cries of alarm, much deploring, and constant handwringing over the problem of juvenile delinquency. We see it in the papers each day; we hear about it on the floor of the Senate; and we receive countless letters on the subject. Unfortunately, none of this activity brings us nearer to a solution.

We hear from all sides, and indeed it seems from above and below too, that juvenile delinquency is a result of poor home life. So it may be. But saying so also does not provide us with the answer. We here cannot legislate the good homes, the responsible parents, and the other environmental factors necessary for the rearing of law-abiding and useful citizens. If we can't do this, what can we do? Action is necessary-that is agreed. But what kind of action? The passage of these two bills which the committee has under consideration would be action which might bring us much closer to a solution than anything else we have done. We cannot change some things and we must accept that fact. There is the possibility, however, that we can prevent delinquency in many cases and that we can salvage some lives that have already started down the criminal path.

We know more about delinquency than we did 10 or 20 years ago, but there is still much we do not know. Also, we do not always know how to apply the knowledge which has been gained over the years, and we often do not have the personnel, money, and facilities to translate our knowledge into a workable program.

The provisions of these two bills, S. 765 and S. 766, if enacted into law, could be the spur to acquiring new knowledge and applying that knowledge by persons equipped to understand and administer it. In human terms, it could be that manv of our young persons who get into trouble could have help that has not heretofore been available. If we cannot change a child's home life and his parents, perhaps we can give that child expert help so that he in turn does not become an inadequate parent. With the techniques that are being developed for the early detection and prevention of delinquency, perhaps many may be saved from committing the first delinquent act.

The projects and the training of personnel which would be provided by these measures could be a dam against the tide of delinquency which has been sweeping across our land. These bills would not make the Federal Government the guardians of the Nation's delinquents. Rather, they would give a small amount of aid and leadership to States and communities so that they might better help themselves. This, I feel, is as it should be.

I believe that the American community is not only willing to accept such legislation, but I believe that it is generally felt that some such action by the Federal Government is necessary.

The Congress has now been considering legislative action along the lines of these two bills for a number of years, and I should like to outline briefly the history of these legislative proposals which the committee is considering.

During the 84th Congress, S. 728, a bill to provide assistance to and cooperation with States in strengthening and improving State and local programs for the control of juvenile delinquency, grew out of our work on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, and I was joined in introducing this measure in January 1955, by Senators Hennings and Langer. After extensive hearings before a special subcommittee of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Senator Herbert Lehman favorably reported a revised bill, S. 4267, which passed the Senate in the closing days of the 84th Congress. No action was taken by the House of Representatives.

During the 85th Congress, I introduced S. 431, which was similar to S. 4267 of the 84th Congress, and was again joined by Senators Hennings and Langer. A number of bills on the same subject were introduced by other Members of the Senate. At least 11 versions of this legislation were presented to the House of Representatives, and hearings were held on 10 of these measures by the Subcommittee on Special Education of the House Committee on Education and Labor.

However, none of these bills was reported and no action resulted on these legislative proposals during the 85th Congress.

In the meantime, the need for action had increased and the yearly statistics on juvenile delinquency were a grim reminder that we ahd not even begun to cope effectively with this national threat. Because of our concern and disappointment with the failure of the 84th and 85th Congresses to pass some measure to alleviate the situation, the staff of the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency was instructed during the past summer to analyze this legislation in an effort to see if revisions were necessary in the light of our experiences since 1955.

The bills, S. 765 and S. 766 are the results of that study and we believe they incorporate the essential provisions of the original legislation. There were several reasons for breaking the larger bill, which we referred to as an omnibus bill, down into two separate bills. One was that we felt that the aims and provisions of the legislation could be more clearly defined in this way. Another reason is that it was felt that the need for action was almost desperate, and while we are not willing to settle for half a loaf and feel that both bills should be passed, we would rather see one enacted into law than none.

The original legislation called for a Federal Advisory Council on Juvenile Delinquency which we now feel can be dispensed with. Such a Council would have served to advise the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and we feel that the Children's Bureau and other agencies of the Department are well staffed with competent and expert personnel in many fields directly and indirectly related to juvenile delinquency. For that reason, we do not see the necessity at this time for the formation of still another Council to advise people who are already experts.

During this current session of the 86th Congress, a number of bills on the subject of juvenile delinquency have been introduced in addition to the two measures which I have been discussing. In the House of Representatives, legislative hearings have already been held again by the Special Education Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor. For a matter of some 4 years, we have been introducing legislation to provide aid to States and communities in handling their delinquency problems, and numerous witnesses have been called and recalled to testify on these measures. I wonder, gentlemen, what we are waiting for. I should like to read to you a few excerpts from a column which apeared in the Washington Post and Times Herald on January 8, 1959, in which delinquency legislation is discussed.

"Numerous bills have been introduced in recent sessions of Congress and hearings have been held widely by investigating committees, but relatively little has been done on a national scale to prevent and combat juvenile crime.

"Although 'research' has become a magic word in relation to weapons, disease, industrial products, it has failed to rouse congressional interest as means of preventing and treating delinquency.

"Also greatly needed in meeting this national problem are more trained specialists.

"Certainly it (juvenile delinquency problem) is big enough and serious enough to require a coordinated national attack. Both the causes and costs of youth. crime reach beyond city, county, and State boundaries."

In conclusion, I should like to reemphasize the fact that the need is acute and is growing. These two measures which I am supporting here today will not answer all our juvenile delinquency problems, but their enactment would be a constructive step in meeting the threat which delinquency poses for our Nation.. I strongly commend these two bills to you for favorable consideration.

Thank you.

STATEMENT OF SENATOR WILLIAM LANGER, MEMBER, SENATE JUDICIARY SUBCOMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

Mr. Chairman and members of the Juvenile Delinquency Subcommitte, I am directing my remarks to you as one of the original members of the Senate Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency which began in the summer of 1953 with little realization on the part of myself and the other members of the subcommittee at that time of the immenseness of the problem we were about to face.

I would like to relate to you today a few of the facts that we have accumulated during these intervening years which I feel are quite convincing evidence of the need for the passage of the two bills, S. 765 and S. 766, which you gentlemen are

considering during these hearings. I might add that I and my colleagues on the Juvenile Delinquency Subcommittee have argued for some kind of legislation similar to the type before you today for the past 5 years but to no avail. I am appalled when I think of the tremendous amounts that have been appropriated for the various projects that I consider not as worthy as helping the children of our Nation.

To begin with, I would like to relate to you a few figures which have been published recently by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr. J. Edgar Hoover. Mr. Hoover states that, in line with the reported increase in appearances before juvenile courts of children between the ages of 10 through 17 as published by the Children's Bureau, the FBI also finds that this trend is in evidence in the arrest figures for children 18 years of age and under. These figures also show that children are increasingly committing more of the very, very serious offenses.

For example, Mr. Hoover reports that in 1957, of all the people arrested for stealing automobiles, 68 percent were under 18 years of age; of all the people arrested for burglary, 55 percent were under 18 years of age; and, of all the people arrested for rape, 20 percent were children under 18 years of age. Further, while we sometimes think of juvenile delinquency as mainly a big city problem, we find that Mr. Hoover claims that delinquency is increasing twice as rapidly in small towns and rural areas as in the larger cities.

While this has been going on for the past 5 years, the Congress has done nothing but talk-and they have done precious little of even that-about helping the States alleviate this problem. I cannot plead too strongly for favorable consideration and passage of the two bills introduced by Senator Hennings, my colleagues, and myself which you are considering today.

The Federal Government must take this action if we are to eradicate from our national life some of the following distressing facts, including:

1. The 200,000 children who annually run away from home, ending up either in jail or sentenced to institutions on charges of vagrancy.

2. The approximately 25,000 babies who are sold each year by doctors, lawyers, midwives, and other individuals to couples desiring children without any investigation as to the suitability of the parents or child.

3. Of the thousands of juvenile narcotics users in the United States, only two cities have followup clinics for the cure of these young narcotic addicts. 4. Every year, over 100,000 children are confined in common jails. One of the major reasons for this is the lack of trained people to handle these children— one of the prime targets provided by the legislation before you today. In addition, 52,000 children a year are committed to various State training schools and institutions, a great many of whom are released prematurely because room must be made for the new delinquents coming in from overcrowded juvenile courts and detention centers.

5. In some of the slum areas in our large cities upward of 20 percent of the juvenile population gets into trouble with the police.

6. In the elementary schools in these neighborhoods, it has been determined that as high as 50 to 60 percent of the children have some sort of emotional problem or family difficulty.

As you gentlemen know, I have always been interested in the problems of the American Indian and of the difficulties they have in raising their children both on and off Federal reservations. I feel a great sympathy not only for the Indian, but for any minority group in our society that is at a disadvantage. The economically and educationally poor Negro families from the South who move into the large industrial cities in the North, similarly disadvantaged families from Puerto Rico who migrate to the city of New York, Mexican families in the southwestern part of the United States-all of these groups, wherever they settle, seem to produce greater numbers of juvenile delinquents than the rest of the population.

I feel that the Federal Government has a great responsibility in raising the standards of living for these people and by so doing I feel that we will reduce the great number of delinquents that they produce. In many cities, it is the offspring of these minority groups that take up the time and effort of the majority of trained personnel in not only the field of delinquency, but in all kinds of social work. These families are in effect immigrants, or in a migratory status, having no legal right many times to claim for long periods of time any State as their home and they are many times denied the services and help they

need. I feel this makes them all the more the problem of the Federal Government.

Whenever these families settle in great numbers in a community, they greatly overtax and burden that community's welfare facilities. We, therefore, must make provision so that these communities which attract such families have the ability to handle the problems that are attendant to being poor and illiterate. As the matter stands today, it is impossible to expand the welfare services in any of these communities to deal with these problem families and their delinquent children without also making sure that there are enough trained people to fill these social work positions. The passage of Senate bill 766 would be a step in the direction of ensuring more of these much-needed people.

Senate bill 765, the special projects bill, which has as its purpose the developing of improved programs for the control and treatment of juvenile delinquency, has had meager beginnings in several parts of the country where entire groups of these immigrant families are taught mental and personal hygiene and are given the basic necessities for living what could be considered a minimum standard when compared to the average American family.

I urge that we, as Members of Congress, must show a willingness to face up to the true proportions of the problem of juvenile delinquency in our country. We must recognize the horrible effects this plague will have on our future as a Nation if it is allowed to go on with only half-hearted efforts at stopping its progress, and we must provide the Nation with the wherewithal and leadership that is necessary to halt this terrible plight.

Senator CLARK. Our first witness today is the Assistant Secretary, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Elliot Richardson. Mr. Richardson, we are always happy to have you with us.

I understand you have a prepared statement. I would be happy to have you either read it or put it in the record and comment, whichever seems to you to be most appropriate.

STATEMENT OF ELLIOT L. RICHARDSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY; ACCOMPANIED BY MRS. KATHERINE B. OETTINGER, CHIEF, CHILDREN'S BUREAU; MARGARET EMERY, ASSISTANT CHIEF, CHILDREN'S BUREAU; PHILIP GREEN, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY SERVICE; AND CHARLES HAWKINS, ASSISTANT TO THE COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY FOR LEGISLATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE

Mr. RICHARDSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me first introduce the people who accompany me this morning.

On my right is Mrs. Katherine Oettinger, the Chief of the Children's Bureau, who also has a statement which will follow mine. On her right, Miss Margaret Emery, Assistant Chief. And on the far right Mr. Philip Green, who is Director of the Division of Juvenile Delinquency Service. On my left is Mr. Charles Hawkins, who is Assistant to the Commissioner of Social Security for Legislation.

Senator CLARK. Mrs. Oettinger, Miss Emery, Mr. Green, Mr. Hawkins, we are happy to have you here, and look forward to hearing from you in the course of the testimony.

Mr. RICHARDSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I think, if there is no objection-and I assume there is not—I will not read my statement.

Senator CLARK. Suppose I ask the reporter to have it printed in the record at this point, and then you may proceed in your own way. (The statement follows:)