Hearings, Reports and Prints of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare

Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room 4232, New Senate Office Building, Senator Joseph S. Clark (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Jembers present: Senators Clark, Kennedy of Massachusetts, Javits, and Murphy. Committee staff present: William C. Smith, counsel; and Eugene Mittelman, minority counsel.

Senator Clark. The subcommittee will open its session. The chairman has an opening statement.

We begin hearings today on S. 1248, the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Act of 1967. S. 1248 has been proposed by the administration. Hearings on similar legislation have already been held in the House Education and Labor Committee. That committee has reported to the House an amended and rewritten version entitled "Juvenile Delinquency Prevention and Control Act of 1967.” The number of the House bill is H.R. 12120. Copies of the House-reported bill and of S. 1248, together with summaries of each and a copy of the House committee report are in each Senator's folder.

I will direct that S. 1248 and H.R. 12120 be printed in full in the record at the conclusion of this opening statement, together with the summaries of these two bills.

The Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, of which subcommittee, has, since 1959, overseen many of the activities of the executive branch, and particularly the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, in the field of juvenile delinquency, prevention and control. It was in 1959 that I first had the privilege of chairing a Labor Committee subcommittee which, at that time, was named the Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. In 1961, after the formation of the Subcommittee on Employment, Manpower, and Poverty, this committee reported out the Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Offenses Control Act which the Congress enacted into law and which, until the end of last fiscal year, was the principal Federal legislative mandate in the field of juvenile delinquency.

It was the chairman of the full committee, Senator Hill, whose task it was to pioneer in this area, with the help of our first witness, Senator Dodd, who has been pioneering in this field for many years, as chairman of the Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate.

We are very honored, indeed, Senator Dodd, to have you with us today, continuing the cooperative work that you and I have done for so many years in this field.

The Juvenile Delinquency and the Youth Offense Control Act of 1961 was extended in 1963 and 1965.

That act provided for demonstration projects to establish new techniques and practices in the prevention and control of juvenile delinquency. It also provided for the training of personnel working in the field of juvenile delinquency, for technical assistance services, and for an information retrieval and dissemination system so that public and private agencies all over the country would be able to take advantage of the results and learn from the demonstration projects.

One of the things which the subcommittee will want to find out at these hearings and establish for the record is the benefits which have been derived over the past 6 years from projects undertaken under the Juvenile Delinquency Act of 1961.

I will mention only one now—one that I suspect is the most significant innovation resulting from these demonstrations—the establishment today of more than 1,000 community action agencies across the country. These agencies were born under the Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Offenses Control Act and are, of course, the principal local administrating agency for the war on poverty.

Now, the connection between juvenile delinquency and poverty has been clearly established at the local level.

The 1961 act funded demonstration community action agencies in such cities as New York, Cleveland, San Francisco, New Haven, Boston, St. Louis, Syracuse, Providence, and here in Washington, D.C. Names such as Mobilization for Youth, Haryou-Act, United Planning Organization, Community Progress, Inc., of New Haven, and Progress for Providence are now familiar to those of us who follow the activities of the war on poverty.

But HEW's activities under the 1961 act are but a small portion of the activities of the Federal Government in fields related to juvenile deliquency prevention and control. It is my understanding, and we shall develop this in some detail as the testimony progresses, that among these activities are the following: :

The Children's Bureau, for example, I understand, conducts investigations and compiles reports on juvenile courts and the problems of juvenile delinquency. Funds for State child welfare activities are granted through the Children's Bureau, particularly to projects which involve delinquency prevention services. The Children's Bureau also provides technical assistance to public and voluntary agencies for delinquency services and develops and publishes standards for the care of delinquent children. Finally, the Children's Bureau aids communities in developing delinquency prevention services.

HEW's Bureau of Family Services administers grant-in-aid programs to States to prevent the breakdown of families. This is an important aspect of juvenile delinquency prevention.

At the National Institute of Mental Health, the Center for the Study of Crime and Delinquency conducts research, training, and demonstrations in juvenile delinquency prevention.

Under the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1965 counseling services are provided within State vocational rehabilitation agencies and

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