Authorities in Southern California recently made a significant decision to remove more than a dozen top officials after receiving numerous complaints about violence and injuries within the county’s juvenile facilities. According to Los Angeles County Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa, 14 top managers are being impacted, and 13 chief deputy positions are being eliminated, effectively removing “an entire layer of management” from the department, which has a total of 6,600 employees.
The affected individuals have been offered positions in other county offices as an alternative. The recent shakeup is a response to the chaos within the county’s juvenile facilities, where officers have been reporting increasing violence against themselves and between inmates over the past two years.
The Coalition of Probation Unions staged a rally demanding the L.A. County Board of Supervisors address safety concerns for probation officers who have been facing assaults at youth facilities. Neama Rahmani, a Los Angeles-based trial attorney and former federal prosecutor, expressed his concerns about the current state of the justice system, noting that probation officers are hesitant to come to work due to the dangerous environment created by violent juveniles.
The decision to trim down the management team came after Viera Rosa requested the county board of supervisors to eliminate funding for these positions in the latest budget revision. The probation chief highlighted that a more streamlined organization would allow for more effective internal reforms and better alignment with the new County Departments of Youth Development and Justice Care and Opportunities.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, probation officers at the Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall facility have been calling out on a daily basis due to unchecked inmate violence, leading to issues with overcrowding and delays in processing suspects. The facility has also faced incidents such as an inmate riot and a jailbreak, with a significant number of officers failing to show up for work during these critical situations.
Despite being a juvenile facility, some offenders housed there are above the age of 18, placing probation officers in challenging situations without the necessary training, protective gear, or compensation provided to correctional officers. Arnold Peter, a lawyer representing hundreds of probation officers in a class action lawsuit against the county, emphasized the need for adequate compensation and support for these officers facing increasingly violent youth offenders.
Peter attributed the structural failures and lack of funding within the county leadership as contributing factors to the escalating violence in juvenile facilities. He expressed hope that the recent management shakeup would lead to improvements in addressing these critical issues and avoiding further costly legal battles for the county.
In addition to the staffing and safety concerns in the probation department, the county is also dealing with whistleblower retaliation lawsuits against the district attorney’s office and other labor-related lawsuits. The ongoing legal challenges underscore the pressing need for comprehensive reforms and support to ensure the safety and well-being of staff working in these challenging environments.