To meet this need we are building a social service department which will ensure to those children who can be rehabilitated in the community, that measure of continued intelligent supervision and guidance which they require, and in less than three years time this department, with offices at the capitol in Hartford, has proved itself to be a vital adjunct to the work at Mansfield. During this time in addition to supervising an average of more than fifty children home on parole and visiting many other homes to see if the home conditions were suitable for parole privileges, the social service department has investigated 582 applications for admission; obtained a complete social service history in each case and arranged for the admission of many urgent cases.
In a number of instances this work has made possible a satisfactory disposition of the case elsewhere so that admission to Mansfield would not be necessary. The social service department is now at the point in its development when we expect it can greatly broaden the scope of its activities and by means of the permanent supervision which this department will give, we believe that an ever increasing number of boys and girls who have undergone training at Mansfield, will either return to their homes or be able to establish themselves satisfactorily elsewhere in some form of remunerative employment which will enable them to become at least partially self-supporting, and help them to lead respectable lives.
