Friday, June 13, 1975
'U' prof reports
on youth reform

THE MICHIGAN DAIL.Y

Page Three

THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Three

By KAREN RAY
Each year, nearly one million
boys and girls are held in adult
jails and juvenile detention
facilities across the nation, re-
ports University Social Work
Professor Rosemary Sarri. This
statistic represents over ten
times the number of children
assigned to halfway houses,
training schools and all other
alternative residential programs
combined.
"Disproportionate numbers of
the jailed youths are from low-
er socio-economic and minority
group populations," said Sarri,
"and disproportionate numbers
are charged with status offen-
ces - such as truancy and cur-
few violations - rather than
crimes.
"F U R T H E R M O R E,"
added Sarri, "girls are more
likely to be detained and held
for longer periods than boys
even though the majority are
charged with status offences."
Sarri disclosed these and oth-
er findings concerning juve-
nile detention in a report of
a recent study she conducted
for the University's National
Assessment of Juvenile Correc-
tions (NAJC).
The study, "Under Lock and
Key: Juveniles in Jail and De-
tention," "amply documents the
gross overuse of secure custody
for youth who may be process-
ed through the juvenile court,"
Sarri contends.
HER REPORT was directed

at juvenile court personel, jail
and juvenile corrections admin-
istrators, police, and others con-
cerned or involved with the
problems of juvenile detention.
"An accurate account of the
extent of juvenile detention
does not exist," the NAJC co-
director admitted. "Such an ac-
count is difficult to develop be-
cause reliable and comparable
information from cities, coun-
tries, states and the federal
government are lacking.
"But we do know that juve-
niles are jailed both in rural
areas where available alterna-
tives for custody of children are
limited, and in urban com-
munities where the volume of
children detained is high des-
pite the greater range of alter-
native facilities," she added.
SARRI concluded in her re-
port that police are allowed
"great discretion" in the area
of juvenile corrections, and
that recommendations made by
the men in blue are seldom
challenged.
"Not infrequently we found
that the courts concurred with
police views that placing youth
in detention was a 'good way to
show them that the court
means business,"' said Sarri.
Professor Sarri also reported
that throughout the U. S. condi-
tions in most jails and deten-
tion facilities are poor. Sarri
contends that most units are
overcrowded and lack basic
See 'U', Page 9

Modern times
An Akron, Ohio, worker seems to be lost in a mechanical world similar to that of Charlie Chap-
lain's famous film "Modern Times." The unusually-shaped "donuts" are made of hard plastic
to fit tightly around pilings on offshore drilling platforms.
Gay Pride Week resolu tion m['-ay
cause chaotic Council session

Appeals court rules food
stamp allotments illegal

W A S H I N G T 0 N ()1-
A federal appeals court yester-
day ruled that current food
stamp allotments are illegal
and ordered the Agriculture
Department to set up a new
coupon allotment system within
120 days.
The three-judge U. S. Court
of Appeals found that the al-
lotment system is invalid be-
cause it fails to provide all re-
cipients with the opportunity to
purchase a nutritionally ade-
quate diet.
"WE THINK it plain that the
Food Stamp Act requires the
secretary to distribute the food
stamp coupons in such a way
that all, or at least virtually all,
recipients are given the 'op-
portunity to obtain a nutritional-
ly adequate diet'," the court
said in unanimous opinion

written by Judge J. Skelly
Wright.
A spokesman for the Food
Research A c t i o n Commit-
tee (FRAC) - which brought
the suit - called the ruling
'the most far-reaching legal de-
cision ever rendered in the
anti-hunger area."
"For the first time it sig-
nals that poor people will have
an opportunity to obtain nutri-
tionally adequate diets as a
matter of entitlement," said
Ron Pollock, an attorney for the
committee.
The court also found that the
Agriculture Department violat-
ed the Administrative Proce-
dure Act by not promulgating
the food stamp regulations be-
fore imposing them and not in-
viting and considering public
comment.

By DAVID WHITING
While excitement is brewing
in the local gay community, City
Council chambers wait with
calm anticipation for the June
23 meeting-traditionally one of
the most chaotic sessions of the
year when Council is faced with
a resolution to endorse the June
22-29 Gay Pride Week.
After a Republican-dominated
Council defeated the motion last
year in a 6-5 vote, gays in the
audience, many of them in drag,
disrupted t h e meeting and
forced former GOP M a y o r
James Stephenson to end the
session before Council reached
the final item on its agenda.
HOWEVER, this year Coun-
cil is expected to be more ami-
able towards the gays as Demo-
cratic Mayor Albert Wheeler
has shown a tolerance towards
gays that Stephenson never did.
Stephenson chided gays through-
out his administration, for never
attempting to co-exist with the
minority.
O'e local gay male, when ask-
ed about the Gay Pride resolu-
tion, responded, "When is that
thing? I know it's got to be (in-
troduced at Council) real soon
because Gay Pride Week starts

the 22nd . . . I sure plan to be to include the Gay Pride reso-
there (at the Council meeting)." lotion. "I will put it on the
Councilwoman K a t h y Koza- agenda," Wheeler declared.
chenko (HRP-Second Ward), a A press release on Gay Pride
self-proclaimed 1 e s b i a n, has Week stated that the week is
stated that she will introduce a "meant to be educational, not
Gay Pride Week resolution next confrontative," and stress that
Wednesday at Council's agenda "gayness is healthy."
session. However, she indicated
fears that Wheeler would delete ALTHOUGH the Council meet-
the item. ing is expected to generate some
local publicity and activity, city
LAST MONDAY Wheeler re- gays have scheduled the ma-
fused to include one of Koza- jority of the Gay Pride Week
chenko's resolutions on the activities in Detroit.
agenda. The motion called for Events for Gay Pride Week
bi-weekly meetings of City Hall include a local pot-luck dinner,
employes which would "give the a boatride to Bob-l& island, and
power back to the workers." a Gay Pride march down Wood-
Wheeler, however, promised ward Ave. in Detroit.
Bito Oteachbirt h
con rol postponed

Police chase crosses campus
By DOC KRALIK The "fugitive" then ran directly over a curb
In a mad Diag chase resembling the latest in front of Hill Auditorium, flew over the top
cops and robbers movie, three Ann Arbor of the bike, landed on the sidewalk and came
squad cars apprehended a nervy bicycle pedal- up running..
ist on what may turn out as drug or stolen The police car drove up on the nearby lawn ?'
property charges. and an officer jumped out to chase and cap-
According to witnesses, the pursuit began ture the suspect behind Bell Tower Inn. By
when a man. jumped onto an allegedly stolen the time he was brought back to the officer's}
bicycle in front of Mason Hall-in an apparent vehicle, two more squad cars were on the.
attempt to escape with an ounce of marijuana. scene and another arrest was made-
AT THAT moment, a squad car veered onto CAPTAIN Carnahan of the Ann Arbor police
the Diag and, with onlookers pointing the said the two men were transported to head-
way, took off with siren wailing after the man quarters for questioning in connection with
on the bike. The cyclist swerved-between trees the incident. Other witnesses are also supply-
is an apparent attempt to lose the less manu- ing details.
verable car, but by making several sharp According to Carnahan, detectives last night
turns, the police were able to keep the man were still trying to find out what actually
in sight as he headed toward North Univer- occurred when the chaos erupted. "Nothing
sity St, definite can be given out now," he added. >

By ELAINE FLETCHER
A bill which would allow
birth control methods to be
taught in the public schools has
been pigeonholed in the House
Education Committee because
the chairwoman, "is adament-
ly opposed to the bill's con-
cepts," a Democratic House
staff member revealed yester-
day.
Committee chairwoman Lu-
cille McCullough (D-Detroit)
has refused to allow the bill,
introduced in March, to be dis-
charged from the committee
even after hearing favorable
testimony from the Dept. of
Public Health, the National Or-
ganization for Women (NOW)
and the Michigan Nurses Asso-
ciation, the source said.
"IF THE committee chair-
person doesn't want to dis-
charge a bill," the source add-
ed, "dynamite will not move
it out" ,
Before a measure can be vot-
ed on by the entire house it
must first be brought to com-itevteb h haresn
mittee vote by the chairperson.
Introduced by State Senator
Gilbert Bursley (D-Ann Arbor),
the same proposal failed once

before in the House Education
Committee, when chaired by
McCullough during the last leg-
islative session (1973-74).
"THERE'S A lot of sentiment
against it," commented Rep.
Barbara Collins (D-Detroit),
current sponsor of the bill.
The bill was originally intro-
duced and passed by the legis-
lature in 1969 but later vetoed
by former Gov. George Rom-
ney.
"Michigan Catholic Confer-
ence and the Right to Life will
come in and talk against it in
connection with abortion," said
House aid Barbara Craft, "but
we find this an absolute contra-
diction. If you're going to op-
pose abortion then give them
something else to prevent preg-
nancy"
"WE'VE HAD testimony from
girls who were pregnant and
they've told of their absolute ig-
norance of birth control, but
the reaction by some grouns is
"von deserved it." added
Cr"ft.
However, Collins sees little
pressure against the bill being
annlied to state legislators.
"The right to life groups know
See BILL, Page 7