{"id":126075,"date":"2025-08-07T10:20:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T10:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/126075\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T10:20:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T10:20:14","slug":"l-a-county-unlikely-to-fight-probation-takeover-as-long-as-receiver-battles-problem-staffers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/126075\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. County unlikely to fight probation takeover \u2014 as long as receiver battles problem staffers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When a federal court appointed a receiver to take over a Mississippi jail plagued by inmate deaths three years ago, the Hinds County supervisors decried the move<\/a> as \u201cutterly unaccountable\u201d to voters. <\/p>\n

When a judge picked a manager<\/a> for Rikers Island this summer after decades of disorder, New York City Mayor Eric Adams dismissed<\/a> the decision as excessive oversight.<\/p>\n

But there wasn\u2019t much of that dissent after Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta\u2019s announcement<\/a> two weeks ago that he planned to ask a judge to appoint a receiver to run L.A. County\u2019s beleaguered juvenile halls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking at it as help \u2014 much needed help,\u201d said Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose district includes Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, which has been the site of a riot, escape attempts and multiple overdoses since it reopened<\/a> in 2023. \u201cI think it\u2019s important that the county not fight it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the history of crises at the juvenile halls, the county can\u2019t mount much of an opposition, she noted. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a leg to stand on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For years, the county\u2019s juvenile halls have careened from one scandal to the next \u2014 a fatal overdose<\/a> of a teen, an alleged guard-incited \u201cfight club<\/a>,\u201d an unabating staffing crisis<\/a>. In 2021, the county entered a court settlement with Bonta\u2019s office, pledging to improve conditions inside the halls, now home to about 430 incarcerated youths ages 13 to 24.<\/p>\n

Last month, Bonta said the county\u2019s \u201crepeated, constant and chronic\u201d failure to adhere to the settlement left him with no choice but to ask the court to approve a receiver for the county\u2019s two remaining halls. That official would, in effect, supplant the supervisors as the top decision-maker for the facilities, setting budgets and hiring staffers. The county, he emphasized, will still foot the bill for everything \u2014 a request that could prove financially risky for the cash-strapped<\/a> county.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an embarrassing rebuke of the county\u2019s politicians; L.A. County would become the second county in the U.S. to lose control of its juvenile facilities to a receiver. Yet a majority of the board appears uninterested in fighting it \u2014 on one condition.<\/p>\n

They want the receiver to go after the union contracts and civil service protections they say keep problem employees on the payroll.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is near impossible for them to be disciplined \u2014 let alone removed from their positions\u201d said Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district includes Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar. \u201cI don\u2019t believe a receivership approach will be successful without changes to the staff and the employment agreement that governs how these halls operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey has been the site of a riot, escape attempts and multiple overdoses since it reopened<\/a> in 2023. <\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

On July 29, the three unions representing probation employees sent a letter to Horvath accusing her of \u201creckless, union-busting rhetoric\u201d and ignoring state law that protects members\u2019 collective bargaining rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us be unequivocal: our union contracts and civil service protections do not shield wrongdoing. They uphold due process and ensure fair and lawful treatment of public servants,\u201d the three union presidents wrote in the letter. \u201cIf the Court appoints the Receiver, we will hold him accountable to state law and to the terms of our contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

Absent some sweeping new power, Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa warns, the receiver will run into the same obstacles as every other chief.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimply having a receiver saying do X, Y and Z isn\u2019t going to change anything unless they have explicit powers that I haven\u2019t had or that the county hasn\u2019t been able to implement because of, for example, the civil service or unions,\u201d Viera Rosa said. \u201cIf it\u2019s simply additional oversight and putting another person to simply have a separate budget, but no new ideas or powers, then it\u2019s a critical mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

And potentially a costly one. County Chief Executive Fesia Davenport warned her bosses at a meeting last week that handing financial control to a receiver could have \u201csignificant impacts\u201d to the county\u2019s finances, which already have been wrecked with federal cuts<\/a>, a $4-billion sex abuse settlement<\/a> and costly labor negotiations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Kathryn Barger said she believes it\u2019s still worth a shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor decades, the Department has been hamstrung by entrenched staffing problems and organizational culture resistant to reform and accountability,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cIf a receiver can cut through the red tape that has stalled past reform efforts, then it\u2019s a step worth taking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after taking the job in 2023, Viera Rosa diagnosed<\/a> his ailing department with a \u201c<\/b>call out culture.\u201d Employees scheduled to work often didn\u2019t show up for their shifts. <\/p>\n

The problem, some staffers say, stems from violence in the halls, which makes many not want to come in. There are fights among the youths, which staffers are supposed to break up, as well as aggression directed at the staff. Thanks to a generous county leave policy, staffers have a large reserve of sick days, which they can use to miss a shift.<\/p>\n

But fewer staffers make the conditions inside the halls more unstable. Those officers who do come in are sometimes required to stay for a double shift to address last-minute staffing problems, draining them and ruining their plans for the day. The lack of staff plunges the halls deeper into chaos, with no one to escort youths to their daily activities: school, exercise, medical appointments.<\/p>\n

The probation department\u2019s staffing problem dates back more than a decade, said former L.A. County Probation Chief Jerry Powers, who used send sheriff\u2019s deputies to staffers\u2019 homes to urge them to return to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve tried everything else. They\u2019ve literally done everything that could possibly be done from a departmental perspective,\u201d said Powers, who oversaw the agency from 2011 to 2015. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have to give the receiver the authority to suspend contracts \u2014 whether it\u2019s employment contracts, union contracts, broad authority to suspend civil service rules \u2014 just a tremendous amount of authority to really move the needle on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happened in Cook County, the only juvenile detention facility in America to go into a receivership. Earl Dunlap<\/a>, who served as the receiver, said the facility suffered<\/a> from some of the same issues as L.A. County: notably, staffers who did not show up to work. A federal judge gave him the ability to get rid of a third of the staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe place was a hellhole,\u201d Dunlap said. \u201cWhat you ended up with was a whole new culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viera Rosa said he sees no signs that the attorney general\u2019s office is looking to go that big.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s premature, given we have no indication from the court as to how they would create a receivership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Probation <\/p>\n

Lorenzo Arnold, a deputy probation officer, attends a rally held by the Coalition of Probation Unions in 2022. Probation unions have repeatedly demanded that the county do more to protect officers inside juvenile halls.<\/p>\n

(Irfan Khan \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Bonta\u2019s office said in a statement the receiver will have the power to hire and fire staffers and \u201call other necessary decisions for compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the receivership is approved, the receiver would have the power to negotiate or renegotiate contracts and to petition the court to waive a contractual obligation in certain circumstances,\u201d the his office said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Michael Dempsey, who Bonta has asked to be appointed as receiver, said he couldn\u2019t comment, citing confidentiality agreements. Dempsey, the head of the Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators<\/a>, has served as the monitor over the halls during the settlement. <\/p>\n

Legal experts say the question of whether a receiver appointed by a Superior Court judge could take on collective bargaining agreements is a murky one. Jonathan Byrd, a vice president with the deputy probation officers union, said the state should expect a wall of opposition if it tries to make changes to the contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will fight that,\u201d he said, adding that he believed the contracts would be protected by decades of court precedent. <\/p>\n

But he said he sees no sign that the attorney general\u2019s office will use the receivership to chip away at union protections. Rather, the union is hopeful that Bonta will take a sledgehammer to the grip the supervisors have on the agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are cautiously optimistic, because we have not been able to get the support we need,\u201d said Byrd, who said he wants the receiver to infuse the department with hundreds of new staff members.<\/p>\n

Since 1979, receivers have taken over jails, prisons and juvenile halls just 14 times, according to Hernandez D. Stroud, a senior fellow with NYU School of Law\u2019s Brennan Center for Justice, who tracks receiverships<\/a>. Only four are active, he said, including two in California overseeing psychiatric and medical care within the state prison system. Recieverships typically last a few years, though the California medical care case has stretched for two decades.<\/p>\n

Experts say overriding the union contract would be a rare \u2014 and politically fraught \u2014 power for a state judge to grant a receiver.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in a federal receivership, they\u2019ve sort of left the contracts alone,\u201d said Don Specter, a senior staff attorney with the Prison Law Office, whose Supreme Court case focused on inadequate medical care<\/a> for California prisoners led to a receiver. \u201cThat would be a last resort, usually.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a federal court appointed a receiver to take over a Mississippi jail plagued by inmate deaths three…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":126076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[77446,37717,1582,276,3059,281,71316,3040,77445,6808,13821,2961,224,5337,1812,9884,77444,6831,77443,77442],"class_list":{"0":"post-126075","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-beleaguered-juvenile-hall","9":"tag-bonta","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-county","13":"tag-court","14":"tag-decade","15":"tag-department","16":"tag-explicit-power","17":"tag-facility","18":"tag-hall","19":"tag-la","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-office","23":"tag-receiver","24":"tag-receivership","25":"tag-staff","26":"tag-staffer","27":"tag-union-contract"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114986983294530552","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}