218 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

I'm going to confer next week with program executive Gilbert Ware
and the juvenile authorities about the total juvenile situation. In any
event, I may direct my attention specifically to the juvenile questions.
In that regard, since I'm covering that aspect of correction, I would
want to visit possibly one or two of the juvenile institutions.

Q. Would you characterize your reaction to that account as being
shocked or surprised or what? How would you characterize it?

A. Well, I think first of all we must remember that it's a nondocu-
mented account at this point. If it's accurately reported, it's a shock-
ing indictment of the custodial personnel at the institution. And we
must remember we are not dealing with hardened criminals, we're deal-
ing with juvenile offenders. And if we are going to allow any such
things as that to occur, assuming again that it did occur as it was re-
ported which has not been proven at this moment, then we're headed
for a lot of trouble in our correctional picture.

Q. Governor, Representative Long in some recent newsletter says
that "Agnew wants to splurge $70 million to f 100 million on a parallel
bridge and saddle you with toll taxes for 40 years!" How about toll
taxes, is that a good term?

A. That's a rather conflicting term. Taxes are one thing and of
course tolls are another. I don't know whether I should continue to
dignify the irrational rantings of Congressman Long about the toll
facilities with any further comment, but I do want to make this clear.
We haven't made any determinations about bridges across the Chesa-
peake at this point, and the studies are still under way. There is no
attempt made to subvert the wishes or desires or the mandate of any-
one. We just want to reach the right conclusion to keep the traffic
moving in this State. An maybe we will have a general public con-
sensus of what should be done, or at least what's imperative after the
heavy summer traffic has been delayed for another year without any-
thing being done in this regard.

Q. Governor, if the bridges and tunnels were free of tolls as Congress-
man Long suggested they could be, could the State under modern road
construction demands afford to maintain the crossings without much
higher highway taxes?

A. It's impossible to do away with the toll facilities and still meet our
commitments in building highways. Mr. Wolff has made it totally
clear that the six-year program is already two years behind because of
the escalation in construction costs. As I travel around the State to the