Authorities in Southern California have fired more than a dozen top officials following complaints of violence and injuries committed by rank-and-file staff at the county’s juvenile detention center.
Los Angeles County Probation Director Guillermo Vieira Rosa said the “entire management ranks” of the 6,600-employee department will be affected, including 14 senior management positions, and 13 chief deputy positions will be eliminated.
Officials said the affected individuals have been offered jobs at other county offices.
A Fox News Digital source said the personnel changes are tied to unrest within the county’s juvenile detention center, where officers have complained for at least the past two years of an increase in inmate-on-inmate and inmate-on-inmate violence inside the facility.
Since Jan. 1, Los Angeles County has placed 66 probation officers on administrative leave for misconduct, including sexual abuse.
The Coalition of Probation Officers Union held a rally to call for workplace safety measures from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in response to assaults on probation officers in juvenile facilities. The rally took place at Executive Hall in Los Angeles, California, on Tuesday, August 16, 2022. (Irrfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“The whole justice system is in disarray, and criminals have the upper hand,” said Neama Rahamani, a Los Angeles-based trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor. “Probation officers don’t come to work because minors are so dangerous.”
The cuts were made hastily after Vieira Rosa’s office asked the county Board of Supervisors to reduce funding for those jobs in the latest budget amendment.
“Streamlining our organization will not only allow us to more effectively implement our internal reforms, but also allow us to better align with the county’s Department of Youth Development and Department of Justice Care and Opportunity,” the probation department said in a statement.
In an internal email to the police department reviewed by Fox News Digital, Vieira Rosa wrote that the cuts would “make the police force stronger and more agile” without increasing the workload on officers or other staff.
“This will make it easier for us to implement the reforms necessary to ensure the safety of our employees and customers,” he wrote.
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An aerial view of Los Padrinos Juvenile Detention Center, Thursday, June 29, 2023, in Downey, California. (Allen J. Schaven/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The cuts come as the police department faces a class-action lawsuit from officers accusing higher-ups of discrimination against injured officers and as the county is plagued by crime problems.
of Los Angeles Times Last week it was revealed that dozens of probation officers assigned to Los Padrinos juvenile detention center were being called out on a daily basis because of unchecked violence among inmates.
Last year, overcrowding at the facility forced police to wait for hours in the parking lot with suspects in their patrol cars.
Los Angeles jails are so crowded that police are leaving juveniles in patrol cars for hours while they wait in line to let them out.
An aerial view of Los Padrinos Juvenile Detention Center in Downey, Calif., officials said Monday that several probation officers and other staff at the facility have been placed on administrative leave since Jan. 1 on a variety of criminal charges. (Allen J. Schaven/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
As Fox News Digital reported, Los Angeles is hesitant to prosecute minors for minor offenses, and those sent to the jail are often accused of serious, violent crimes. Last summer, the juvenile detention center experienced an inmate riot and escape. On the night of the escape, 60 of the 100 officers scheduled to work that shift did not show up, according to a report from the LA Times.
Although it is a juvenile detention center, it also houses offenders aged 18 and over.
As a result, probation officers, who are typically trained for desk work focused on the supervised release of low-level offenders, are being forced to confront violent individuals without the training, protective equipment and pay given to corrections officers, said attorney Arnold Peter, who is representing hundreds of probation officers in a class-action lawsuit against the county.
“The job of a probation officer has changed dramatically over the last seven to 10 years,” he told Fox News Digital.
At the same time, juvenile inmates are becoming bolder.
“Juvenile offenders feel like they have few constraints on their ability to commit violence,” he said.
Despite complaints from probation officers, workplace safety remains a concern. (Irrfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
He said county leadership, organizational deficiencies and a lack of funding are to blame, but he hopes a management shake-up will help improve the situation.
“Hopefully, with this change in management, someone will think about this issue and not put off the litigation,” he said. “I hope they resolve the issue, pay adequate compensation and put this behind them. Otherwise, the costs are going to escalate exponentially.”
Peter said one of the reasons for the class action lawsuit was that the county tried to solve its staffing problems by assigning medically restricted employees to work shifts at the juvenile detention center. Then things got worse.
“These people were constantly being injured,” he said. “In juvenile detention centers, there can be just as much violence as in adult prisons.”
Los Angeles County Probation Department Headquarters. (Los Angeles County Probation Department)
The county is seeking to have the case dismissed, but Peter said he expects the procedural move to fail after the next hearing on July 25.
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In addition to the Probation Department’s funding issues, the county is facing several whistleblower retaliation lawsuits targeting the district attorney’s office, two of which have ended in multimillion-dollar awards, as well as at least one major labor lawsuit brought by Viera Rosa County Mayor’s predecessor, Alfredo Gonzalez.
Gonzalez’s lawsuit says he repeatedly complained to the county Board of Supervisors that the police department was understaffed and in violation of state law, and when state inspectors investigated Los Angeles juvenile detention centers, he blamed compliance problems on understaffing.
He was subsequently fired.
