Youth probation camps targeted

The U.S. Justice Department plans to investigate dangerous conditions at Los Angeles County probation camps for teens, county officials said Tuesday.

The probe, announced to the Board of Supervisors last week, comes after years of federal scrutiny of county juvenile halls, and could lead to a lawsuit or consent decree, officials say.

Although details of the investigation, expected to begin early next year, remained confidential, Supervisor Gloria Molina alluded to problems with use of force and restraints of inmates during Tuesday’s supervisors meeting.

“You don’t pop somebody in the face just because you had a bad day,” Molina said of probation officers. She described the pending investigation as “very troubling” and expressed surprise at the Justice Department’s planned oversight. “I was sort of shocked by it because I thought we had been doing better.”

Justice Department spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson confirmed plans to investigate probation camps but declined to disclose specifics.

The Probation Department, which houses about 4,000 teenagers across the county on any given day, has grappled with growing violence among inmates. Youthful offenders stay for short periods in the county’s three juvenile halls while their cases are adjudicated; convicted teens serve their sentences in 19 rural probation camps scattered across the region.

A 2003 Justice Department report criticized the halls for substandard medical and mental-health care, poor sanitation, overuse of pepper spray and dangerous conditions. The facilities also lacked adequate educational, social and religious opportunities, and had no effective way for minors to air grievances, federal officials found.

Many of the 66 required changes have been made, including increasing staff in the juvenile halls by about 20%, but stemming physical conflicts remains a challenge, said David Grkinich, a Probation Department director. “It’s tough to predict behavior,” he said.

There were 2,630 youth-on-youth fights in the camps last year, with between 2,300 and 2,600 projected for this year, according to department statistics. In the juvenile halls, there were 2,738 fights last year, and 1,702 altercations through August of this year. Although none of the confrontations, which are difficult to track accurately, resulted in fatalities, one youth was paralyzed and another lost an eye during attacks at the Sylmar facility earlier this year.

The federal inquiry is expected to be similar to the previous one, said David Davies, Probation Department chief deputy.

“They just want to make sure that the children, the minors are getting the services they should be getting,” Davies said.

Presiding Juvenile Court Judge Michael Nash said, “I don’t think anybody is satisfied with how the juvenile justice system at this time performs.”

A county study released earlier this year found the Probation Department lacking in mental-health support, compiling data on youth inmates, education and aid to teens’ families.

Supervisors postponed until next week a decision on a sole-source $865,000 contract for an outside consultant to aid with juvenile justice reform. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky cast the lone dissenting vote, urging immediate approval.

“Our system was failing,” Yaroslavsky said, calling board members “oblivious” to the probation system’s woes.

“This is one consent decree I may welcome,” Yaroslavsky said. “I don’t know what it takes to get our attention.”

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susannah.rosenblatt@latimes.com