Show 1 t 0A Standard-Examine- Saturday June IS 1990 r 4 eat I wkalui LaitsItWiS 1 1 ei ARE Exercise judgment on jail confessions VOUft OPPONENT! 15 MAKING VICIOUS AND IRRESPONSIBLE ATTACKS 000 GOING TO RETALIATE AND FURTHER - ON VOL) Although the practice is violated from time to time police are not supposed to interrogate prisoners before read- ing them their rights But what if inmates don’t know that they are talking to an officer and confess to crimes? The US Supreme Court ruled recently that criminals’ statements can still be used against ' them The case involved a prisoner and an East St Louis 111 murder An inmate confided to a jail informant that he had murdered someone in 1984 An undercover cop then posed as a new cellmate and was able to get the inmate to repeat the confession — a revelation that led to prosecution No one condemns police for their eagerness to solve ter-- i s rible murders Now the Supreme Court ruling has subtly eroded the Miranda doctrine which says a person in custody has the right to remain silent and be represented by legal counsel The practice of wringing a confession out of an inmate with the use of undercover tactics is deceptive although legal by court opinion But police should be prudent in its ! This is sn illegal suicide bhorped by evfefiy device : use The Miranda doctrine is supposed to prevent police in-- i terrogators from extracting confessions through intimida- tion The high court did nothing to reverse its basic premise But a prison also is an intimidating setting As the high : court ruling noted it’s not uncommon for prisoners to I brag about murders or crimes they have not committed in order to look tough to their fellow inmates This practice 1 is an advantage for a cellmate to gain some consideration - for his own sentence by revealing what he has heard in the - way of a confession For those reasons police need to use secret jailhouse " tactics with care and caution The straightforward profes- - sionally handled interrogation of a suspect complete with the Miranda warnings should suffice in most instances ' 4us I device i$ 4 legal suickfe endowed by the and Constitutionally uranteed Our furry brother Scripps Howard Editorial News Service So you thought being kind to animals was something all ’“of us believed in like motherhood and apple pie? Don’t tell that to advocates of animal rights The more extreme among them have in mind a whole new ethic of animal equality with humans Really This would alter what we eat and wear of course and would eliminate use of animals in medical research But beyond that the goal is a mental revolution It’s food for thought - We’d suggest you start by reflecting on this dictum noted at the big march in Washington the other day: “Animals are little people in fur coats” 3 - ' & life a sUH?) nanBanaBoaHnaH Rep Thomas J Downey Federal government should provide care through legislation states for child care subsidies make Head Start an y program and require that states establish minimum quality and safety standards An important part of this legislation is new child care resources for the 10 million latchkey children in America It authorizes grants to the states for the expansion or establishment of before and after school child care that will be available to children attending half day preschool or kindergarten elementary or secondary school classes In most cases programs will be held in public school buildings and charges will be based on a sliding fee scale linked to income Before and after school care benefits both parents and children Left on their own children are increasingly vulnerable to the problems of substance abuse and juvenile delinquency A superv ised facility provides a safe haven where children can enjoy the companionship of their friends until parents finish work Quality child care will also provide the nurturing and teaching that children need For working parents a school-base- d program offers convenient and dependable child care throughout the day at a single location They can leave for work knowing that their children are safe The result will be a decline in absenteeism unproductive work time or stress that affects the job performance of parents whose children are unsupervised or in undependable child care Why should the federal government be involved all-da- News Service The television series “The Wonder Years” offers a vivid image of just how much the world has changed Every week baby boomers are reminded that their childhood was a time of two parent famid lies waking up to a breakfast and chats with Mom over a glass of milk and home-cooke- Ik care for children necessary today After-scho- ol Fof Scripps Howard 'S after-- school cookies But for most children today the wonder years are dramatically different They stand in playgrounds in the morning waiting for school to open because they have nowhere else to go Many live in one parent households They walk home alone from school and return to an empty house Sadly the latchkey has replaced milk and cookies as the enduring symbol of childhood in 1990 ' What this reflects is the dramatic transformation in American society during the last three decades Women now make up almost half of the work force and most of them are working to help support their families Of these working women nearly 60 percent have children under the age of 13 And this trend will only continue By 1995 it is estimated that four out of five school age children will have mothers w'ho work outside the home As a result of these societal changes child care has become one of the most pressing issues confronting working parents today A recent Harris poll found that the vast majority of American families with young children wake up wondering what they are going to do with their kids today They feel a sense of insecurity and uncertainty about their child care arrangements While working people would prefer to leave their children in the care of other family members the decline in intergenerational families and an increase in single parent households make this impossible Parents faced with a lack of quality child care facilities are forced to rely upon a variety of unreliable or ad hoc care arrangements for their children In far too many instances this means that children are cared for by a sibling or left to care for themselves The House of Representatives responding to this national crisis recently passed comprehensive child care legislation This measure will expand tax credits for the working poor provide funding to the in school-base- d care? Child care is a national problem and it cannot be adequately addressed without providing before and after school care Studies also have shown that the demand for care is not being met because of a lack of resources on the local level The impetus for meeting these child care needs must come from the states and the federal government care is Finally providing adequate school-base- d an important investment in our nation’s future that will enhance workforce productivity and better prepare children for adulthood In the best of all possible worlds the magic of yesterday's childhood would be part of our children's inheritance But despite nostalgic yearnings we cannot turn back the clock What we can do is offer programs that reflect the dramatic changes in society and that recognize that America's children deserve the very best care Y is a member of the House (Rep Downey Harr and Means Committee) D-- families Low-inco- me should be assisted ‘choice’ is the goal For Scripps Howa'd News Service long-overd- ue shoe How can we endorse any legislation that spends less than the other guy spends on our most important national resource — our children? In March I introduced a bill that would have spent about $205 billion over five years to provide day-car- e assistance nationwide That bill was narrowly defeated and the House passed legislation that spends $8 billion more to do essentially the same thing The main difference is that the latter bill requires states to set up preschool day-car- e programs and calls for construction of a new federal bureaucracy to regulate those programs Now as we prepare to iron out differences between the bills passed by the House and the Senate we must again consider federally mandated school-car- e Let's be clear the issue is not whether after school care is valuable or necessary — we all agree that it is both We all agree that latchkey children must be taken care of The questions are 1) whether the federal government should force those programs and then decide how many which kind and where they exist and 2) whether it is worth the extra money it would cost to do that A federal after-schoprogram mandate is redundant states now have the option to spend existing grant monies on more and better pre- - and postschool child care and many states do States will reserve that right regardless of which legislation passes Just as we agree that latchkey children must be taken care of most of us grimace at the thought of one more unwieldy bureaucracy In the child care debate there are only two reasons to tolerate growing government — either because it is believed to be the only cure to a dire shortage of day care for school-age- d children or because the federal govem- ol Rep E imimimii day Shaw Jr ment mistrusts state government First let’s address the shortage Research does not e indicate a critical shortage Census Bureau statistics report that many families with two work- ing parents care for their children without resorting market But this fact is often to the formal overshadowed by misinformation drawn from waiting lists skewed by parents who put their names on multiple lists day-car- day-ca- national At last we’ve reached a consensus: We can no longer spend more money than we take in we must run our country like we run our households — more hamburgers and fewer steaks more reminders to turn off the lights and adjust the thermostats But when the subject is our nation’s children those of us who pride ourselves in our fiscal conservatism squirm like a foot in an uncomfortable programs yniMii win i— ii— miiiiMiuMMimiiiiiiwiii re Still other research contrasts numbers of working e slots in a certain region mothers with the — failing to consider the vast numbers of parents who turn to relatives to care for their children The need is not for MORE day care but better and regionally specialized day care The only reason then for the federal government child care is beto mandate pre- - and cause Congress believes it can do the job better Recent history provides little support for this view Any number of Great Society programs — such as federal housing projects — were but ultimately proved costly and ineffective More recently last year’s attempt by the federal government to mandate catastrophic healthcare insurance proved truly catastrophic ending in tlie repeal of the very legislation Congress set in place The federal government must resist the temptation to be all things to all people and politicians must resist the temptation to buy votes with another expensive program that it cannot afford Across the country the market is beginning to respond to e needs with informal neighborhood arrangements volunteer programs and company-provide- d child care programs Some would debate whether the federal government with its bulging deficit should consider taking any new responsibility for our nation’s child day-car- post-scho- ol well-intend- ed day-car- care needs I say yes but let’s focus the attention on financial assistance to families of working poor Legislation that provides earned income tax credits to the working poor recognizes what most of us with chil- dren know that parents are in the est position to j Li make decisions about child care The goal should be to provide the most choldes for parents while keeping within the parameters of our budget in these deficit days While we all want to do something for our children we must remember it is our children who will eventually be stuck f I with the tab is a member (Rep Shaw Means and Hays Committee) R-F- la of the House |