L.A. County’s chief probation officer mentioned he plans to depart the troubled company as a deadline to evacuate Los Padrinos Juvenile Corridor approaches, sources mentioned, probably leaving greater than 200 incarcerated youths with no place to go.
Probation chief Guillermo Viera Rosa despatched a quick memo Wednesday to the county Board of Supervisors saying he deliberate to retire by the top of the yr, in line with a number of sources who requested anonymity to debate a delicate personnel matter.
Viera Rosa’s surprising departure would cap a 20-month stint throughout which he didn’t reform an company whose juvenile halls once more face the specter of closure below mounting scrutiny from oversight businesses and the California legal professional normal’s workplace. The county Probation Division is accountable for overseeing each grownup parolees and youths in juvenile camps and halls.
“We’ve loads of challenges within the Probation Division and I thank him for taking up this job throughout some tough instances,” Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose district consists of the Los Padrinos facility in Downey, mentioned in a press release. “I want him the most effective.”
The Board of Supervisors scheduled a closed-door assembly with Viera Rosa for Tuesday. In accordance with the assembly agenda, the board will conduct a efficiency assessment for the chief and think about candidates to exchange him.
Via a Probation Division spokesperson, Viera Rosa declined to remark.
A former member of the California Board of State and Group Corrections — the oversight physique that has repeatedly threatened to close the county’s dilapidated juvenile services — Viera Rosa was tasked with ushering in enhancements after his predecessor was fired on the heels of two Occasions investigations into abuses and mismanagement.
As a substitute, Viera Rosa has discovered himself squarely within the crosshairs of the oversight board he as soon as sat on.
He initially joined the county as chief strategist for juvenile operations. Quickly after, an 18-year-old died of a drug overdose inside Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Corridor in Sylmar, after weeks of alarming stories from regulatory our bodies about drug use amongst teenagers within the facility.
Viera Rosa reopened the defunct Los Padrinos Juvenile Corridor, however the facility shortly descended into chaos. Within the first month alone, there was a riot and an escape try, a supervisor was caught bringing a gun on the grounds, and staffers continued to refuse to report back to work.
In October, the Board of State and Group Corrections discovered that Viera Rosa had didn’t get a deal with on the staffing disaster and that Los Padrinos was now not protected for teens. The board gave the division till Dec. 12 to relocate greater than 200 youths from Los Padrinos.
Viera Rosa has proven little intention to maneuver them, irritating corrections board members, who’ve repeatedly mentioned the company’s services are harmful for younger folks.
“There isn’t any effort presently to make any form of plan to relocate the younger folks detained in Los Padrinos,” mentioned Angeles Zaragoza, a board member and alternate public defender, at a Nov. 21 assembly the place she rebuked the county, accusing it of “blatant disregard” of the oversight board. “I’m simply at a loss to how now we have gotten right here.”
Attorneys for the board mentioned on the assembly they might think about authorized motion in opposition to the company if the relocation deadline got here and went with out motion from the county.
“Everybody on this board is anxious about Dec. 12 and what is going to happen after Dec. 12,” board Chair Linda Penner mentioned.
A spokesperson for the board mentioned it was not informed about Viera Rosa’s plans to go away the company.
Not all of Viera Rosa’s bosses handled his departure as a finished deal. Supervisor Kathryn Barger mentioned in a press release that she needed “robust and constant management on the prime.”
“I wish to discover if there’s a chance to have Probation Division Chief Viera Rosa proceed his service to our County,” she mentioned. “Efficient management is crucial to implementing reforms and making certain that the division’s employees can carry out the vital work of rehabilitation and help for the youth of their care. The challenges we face are massive — however not unsurmountable.”
The places of work of the opposite three supervisors both declined to remark or didn’t remark earlier than publication.
Probation Division spokesperson Vicky Waters declined to touch upon Viera Rosa’s departure however mentioned the division hopes to avert a shutdown of Los Padrinos by passing one other inspection. Inspectors had been at Los Padrinos on Thursday, in line with the corrections board.
“We’re assured that the preliminary enhancements carried out will guarantee compliance,” Waters mentioned.
The president of the union representing rank-and-file probation officers, which has lengthy expressed frustration with each division management and the Board of Supervisors, welcomed Viera Rosa’s announcement.
“Beneath his management, there was failure after failure,” Stacy Ford, president of native union AFSCME 685, mentioned in a press release. “Individuals don’t go away good jobs as a result of they don’t like their job, they go away due to unhealthy management. Beneath his management, officers had been compelled into retirement, officers had been compelled dwelling on medical go away, officers had been compelled to work in a poisonous unsafe work atmosphere and lots of officers stop due to the abuse.”