Dr. Van Waters Reinstated by Griswold Board

Dr. Miriam Van Waters yesterday won her long fight for reinstatement as super-intendant of the State Reformatory for Women by a unanimous decision of the special commission headed by Dean Erwin N. Griswold of the Law School.

In a 14-page report to Governor Paul A. Dever, the commission said that there was no "just cause" for Dr. Van Waters' removal, and that nine of the 27 charges against her were "trivial" and "captious."

When informed of the commission's conclusion, Commissioner of Correction Elliott E. McDowell immediately ordered Dr. Van Waters' reinstatement.

McDowell fired her on January 11, alleging that her administration was lax, and that she had violated state laws in attempting to cut through red tape.

The Griswold commission said charges that Dr. Van Waters' administration had mishandled homosexuality in the reformatory were "wholly unproved." "In the very few instances where overt acts of homosexuality occurred ... prompt and effective steps were taken," the report stated.

Concerning other charges, the commission said: "No institution can be static ... many bits of progress in the Law have come about because practices got ahead of the Law and it has been necessary to change the Law to catch up with what is being done."

While not endorsing Dr. Van Waters' interpretation of penal laws, the commission asserted that such things were "necessarily being done in many administrative organisms, both governmental and private."

The commission's decision ended a two-month battle between Dr. Van Waters and McDowell, her superior. Under a state statute, the reformatory super-intendant got a public hearing before the commissioner immediately following her dismissal. At the hearing's end, on February 8, McDowell, as judge, sustained his original findings against her.

Dr. Van Waters then demanded a final hearing before an "impartial board" which the Governor was required by law to choose. Besides Dean Griswold, Governor Dever appointed former Assistant Attorney General Robert G. Clark, Jr., and Mrs. Roger L. Putnam.

The tribunal held its investigation from February 21 to March 4, alternating hearing sites between the State House and Langdell Hall in the Law School.

When the news of her victory reached Dr. Van Waters yesterday, she remarked that "the main task is to keep this great public interest which has been aroused functioning in constructive channels ... The great good is that the public has learned something about the needs and nature of the woman offender."

Commissioner McDowell denied reports that the unfavorable decision would result in his resignation. "I have no intention of resigning," he said. McDowell was appointed by Governor Robert F. Bradford '23 in February, 1943. Dr. Van Waters has held her position since 1933.