NCJ Number
77187
Date Published
1979
Length
749 pages
Annotation
This document contains transcripts of testimony on the abuse of children in institutions and group residential settings presented before the Senate Subcommittee on Child Abuse and Human Development on January 4, 24, and May 31, 1979.
Abstract
Witnesses on the first day of the hearings presented testimony about the scope and dimensions of the problem of abuse and neglect of children in institutions or in group settings and the conditions in some of these institutions. Those testifying included physicians, social workers, parents, adults who had been institutionalized as children, representatives of the National Center for Youth Law and of the Urban Indian Child Resource Center, and lay children's rights advocates. Witnesses on the second day were representatives from the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department and from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare's Office of Human Development Services. They reported on the government's current efforts in preventing such abuse and on plans for future efforts. The third day's hearings focused upon the problem of institutional abuse both from the perspective of a director of an institution in the District of Columbia which has been criticized for the quality of care and from the perspective of a 17-year-old boy who spent 16 years in a Virginia orphanage. This case has been the subject of litigation by the Children's Defense Fund and is currently under investigation by the State of Virginia. Representatives of the General Accounting Office reported on the first stage results of an investigation into reports that a number of foster children who had been placed in facilities operated by the People's Temple, or with members of the People's Temple, had died in Jonestown, Guyana. Also, representatives of California and the Los Angeles Department of Public Social Services described the ways their respective agencies deal with the problem of abuse and neglect in institutions. Appended material include articles, publications, and written responses to questions on HEW's funding and legislative concerns.