By: Rebecca Ellis | Los Angeles Times
LA COUNTY – The top brass within the Los Angeles County Probation Department hastily moved children out of Central Juvenile Hall not for reasons of safety but to avoid political embarrassment, according to a report released Friday from a county watchdog.
The report from the county’s Office of Inspector General, which acts as an investigatory arm for the Board of Supervisors, analyzed the motivations behind the Probation Department’s chaotic transfer in mid-March of roughly 140 youths from Central Juvenile Hall in Lincoln Heights, days ahead of a scheduled state inspection of the facility, to the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar.
The report found that the Probation Department orchestrated the disorganized transfer to avoid an inspection that officials believed they would fail.
Related: LA County Probation Department demands support from Board of Supervisors
Department insiders continue to share with 2UrbanGirls that deployment of probation officers, over the last three years, are not properly trained in the supervision of youth in the detention facilities and racial disparities between supervisors and line staff hinder department operations.
Employees within the department have continued to publicly air their grievances to the Board of Supervisors whose sole focus over the last few years was ousting former Sheriff Alex Villanueva as opposed to addressing issues in the probation department.
Read the full article here.
2UrbanGirls contributed to this report.
