The Department of Welfare and Institutions is charged with the responsibility of developing policies for and supervises the local public welfare programs, operates the prisons and prison farms for adults and the training schools for juveniles, and provides supervision in services for a host of other related programs for children and adults. In addition, the Department provides certain administrative services for the Virginia Parole Board.

The Department of Welfare and Institutions comprises one of the very largest executive departments of the State Government. It is anticipated that its operations and the programs administered under its supervision during the coming biennium will require 230 million dollars. Of this sum, approximately 74 million dollars will be federal funds, while 89.5 million dollars will be appropriated from the State's general fund with an additional 14 million dollars coming from other special State funds; and the several counties and cities will contribute some 42 to 43 million dollars. There are some 4,600 State and local employees involved in the Department's operations and under the supervision of the State Board of Welfare and Institutions.

Considering the enormity of the Department and the scope and depth of the various programs for which the General Assembly has made the Department responsible over many years, coupled with the rising concern within the State, as well as nationally, with social and economic problems of individuals and families, the General Assembly felt it appropriate at this time to study the organization and functioning of the Department of Welfare and Institutions and the philosophies and objectives underpinning the operation of these multifarious welfare and correctional programs.

The General Assembly appeared to have two primary objectives in mind when it directed this Study. The first involved a thorough study of all the programs presently contained in Title 63 of the Virginia Code (Welfare Laws generally) and the impact of burgeoning federal legislation on these programs. The second concern was directed mainly at the present organization of the Department of Welfare and Institutions as a vehicle for implementing these welfare and correctional programs. As to the second, there has been for several years a growing concern among the members of the General Assembly that many of the programs relating to corrections, to probation and parole, and to the various general welfare programs may be so inimical or disfunctional in nature as to cause a lessening in the effectiveness of each individual program when all are grouped together in a single department.

It is, therefore, to these two broad areas of emphasis that this Commission has directed its attention and effort pursuant to Chapter 700 of the 1966 Acts of the General Assembly.

Pursuant to this Act, the Speaker of the House, the Honorable E. Blackburn Moore, appointed Stanley A. Owens, Manassas, Frederick T. Gray, Richmond, and Lucas D. Phillips, Leesburg, as members of the Commission from the House of Delegates; the President of the Senate, the Honorable Lieutenant Governor Fred G. Pollard, appointed Senator Charles R. Fenwick, Arlington, and Edward 0. McCue, Jr., Charlottesville, as members of the Commission from the Senate; and the Honorable Mills E. Godwin, Jr., Governor of Virginia, appointed the following individuals to the Commission from the public at large: Mrs. A. Paul Hartz, Waverly, J. Hudson Huffard, Sr., Bluefield, Mrs. Vivian C. Mason, Norfolk, and Dr. Earl R. Ware, Fredericksburg.

The Committee met, organized and elected Charles R. Fenwick as Chairman of the Commission and Stanley A. Owens as Vice-Chairman. The Honorable G. M. Lapsley, Director, Division of Statutory Research and Drafting, served as Secretary to the Commission and Robert L. Masden served as Staff Attorney.