Child Welfare System Lost to the Streets

The first sentence of “Hard Place for Tough Kids” (editorial, Oct. 15) seemed to say it all: “The first thing to know about the children at the MacLaren Children’s Center is that they have nowhere else to go.”

When I worked there in the 1970s as supervisor of admissions and releases, these were “Thursday’s children” who had far to go, as well as being full of woe. My mandate was to make sure we released enough kids every week to make room for the next batch of kids with nowhere else to go.

So nothing much has changed in 30 years. Or has it? On Oct. 17, I see a small article, “Judge Warns About Excessive Arrests at Mac-Laren Hall,” in which Terry Friedman, the presiding judge of the Los Angeles Dependency Court, is complaining that too many woeful kids are being arrested by police. I don’t remember using the cops as a “placement of last resort” when I supervised releases at MacLaren.

What lies ahead for these children? Where do they go from Mac-Laren? Where are they five years later, 10 years later? Maybe if we know these answers we can know how to reform MacLaren. Maybe then we can offer these kids a life less troubled, or at least with some greater hope.

Norman W. Nielsen

Highland Park