By Jason Henry
Los Angeles Daily News
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County is shifting control of the educational and recreational activities at its juvenile detention facilities from its struggling Probation Department to an agency created nearly four years ago with the goal of eventually taking over juvenile detention completely.
The Board of Supervisors unanimously supported a motion Tuesday, April 7, directing the Department of Youth Development to report back in 30 days with a plan for the “complete transition of the organizational leadership of programming responsibilities in all youth justice facilities, including scheduling and other activities required for effective coordination.”
The Probation Department has failed to stay in compliance with regulations set by Board of State and Community Corrections for years now and is facing an ongoing effort by the California Department of Justice to have the county’s facilities placed under receivership.
Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Janice Hahn co-authored Tuesday’s motion.
“The timing is right. Our Probation Department is facing a chronic staffing crisis, challenges maintaining compliance with the BSCC and DOJ, and the threat of potential receivership,” Hahn said at the meeting. “Amid these challenges, the department has struggled to provide consistent, high-quality programs for the youth in our care.”
Youth inside Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall have asked for better access to vocational training, financial literacy courses, and art and music programs, Hahn said.
“ The Department of Youth Development is ready to lead, and this moment calls for urgency and accountability,” Horvath said in a statement. “By further empowering DYD, we are ensuring every young person in our care is met with opportunity, investment and a real chance to thrive.”
The shift is a step toward the supervisors’ long-stalled “Youth Justice Reimagined” plan, a 2020 proposal that envisioned replacing the county’s juvenile halls and camps with smaller, more home-like facilities run by DYD. Youth Development formed in 2022, but the department has largely taken on a supporting role instead, in part because the full “Youth Justice Reimagined” would require changing a state law that places the responsibility for holding juvenile offenders squarely with a chief probation officer and a probation department.
State legislators who attempted to take up that cause have found little success.
At the meeting, David Carroll , the director of DYD, told the supervisors his department is ready to take over existing programs and to provide a greater selection, including training and services designed for older juveniles who no longer need to attend school and may have large gaps of free time during their day. DYD already works with several contractors who provide services at the juvenile facilities and will have staff on site to help facilitate.
Carroll estimates DYD will need $21.8 million to take on the expanded role and hire specialized staff. Those employees, called care coordinators, will have social work backgrounds and create unique plans for each youth that will follow them throughout the juvenile detention process.
“By empowering DYD to lead evidence-informed programming in these facilities, L.A. County will reduce idleness, improve belonging and strengthen collaborative care for justice-involved youth,” Carroll said in a statement.
The report back in 30 days is expected to include an analysis of the available state and federal funding sources related to programming and to determine if any will be hindered by the switch, as some funds used in the operation of juvenile facilities can only be used by the Probation Department and sworn peace officers.
Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa did not oppose the plan at the meeting, but cautioned there would not be any staff that could transfer over. Programming is currently handled by sworn probation officers performing “double and triple duty” and those officers are still needed to run the juvenile facilities, he said.
The department’s staffing has improved over the past year and is no longer “paper thin,” he said. As a result, students are receiving the necessary services and programs and making it to school on time more often.
Probation is relying on officers redeployed from the field to maintain those numbers, however, and Viera Rosa warned that oversight over adult and juvenile probationers is suffering due to the depleted manpower.
“That is sort of a bill we’ll have to pay tomorrow, but today, we have more staff in the facilities and we’re doing a better job of meeting those requirements,” he said.
Still, Viera Rosa welcomed more collaboration with other departments to meet the demands at the juvenile facilities.
“I don’t think we’re in a weaker position by moving in this direction,” he said.
The Probation Department has been dinged repeatedly by state regulators for failing to provide adequate programming. The BSCC’s inspectors in December reviewed video footage at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall and found multiple instances of documents listing activities that never occurred.
A similar issue was discovered at Los Padrinos last year. Even members of the Board of Supervisors have expressed their own concerns about whether listed activities are occurring after visits to the juvenile facilities.
Probation submitted a corrective action plan to the BSCC in March that pledges to expand oversight. It is expected to go before the BSCC board April 16.
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