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LA county axes leadership in juvenile detention system over rampant violence, officer morale collapse
Authorities in Southern California have axed more than a dozen top officials after complaints of violence and injuries from rank-and-file officers in the county’s juvenile facilities.
Los Angeles County Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa said that 14 top managers would be impacted and 13 chief deputy positions would be eliminated – “an entire layer of management” in the department, which has 6,600 employees.
The impacted individuals were offered positions in other county offices, authorities said.
Sources tell Fox News Digital the shakeup is connected to chaos within the county’s juvenile facilities. Officers have been complaining of increasing violence against themselves and between inmates at the jails for at least the past two years.
LOS ANGELES COUNTY HAS PUT 66 PROBATION OFFICERS ON LEAVE SINCE JAN 1 FOR MISCONDUCT, INCLUDING SEX ABUSE
The Coalition of Probation Unions staged a rally to demand L.A. County Board of Supervisors address safety on the job as probation officers were being assaulted at youth facilities. The rally was held at the Hall of Administration on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022, in Los Angeles, CA. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“The entire justice system is a mess, and criminals have the upper hand,” said Neama Rahmani, a Los Angeles-based trial attorney and former federal prosecutor. “Probation officers aren’t coming to work, because the juveniles are so dangerous.”
The cuts came in expedited fashion after Viera Rosa’s office asked the county board of supervisors to eliminate funding for the jobs in its latest budget revision.
“A streamlined organization will not only allow us to enact internal reforms more effectively, but it will also align us better with the new County Departments of Youth Development, and Justice Care and Opportunities,” the probation chief said in a statement.
In an internal email to the department seen by Fox News Digital, Viera Rosa wrote that the cuts would “make us stronger and nimbler” without adding to the workload of sworn officers and other staff.
“It will make it easier to institute the reforms we need to guarantee the safety of employees and clients,” he wrote.
JEWISH LA PROSECUTORS BLOW WHISTLE ON ALLEGED ANTISEMITISM IN DA’S OFFICE
Aerial view of Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, CA, on Thursday, June 29, 2023. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The cuts come as the department is facing a class action lawsuit from officers who accuse leadership of discriminating against officers with injuries, and the county as a whole struggles with crime.
The Los Angeles Times last week revealed that dozens of probation officers assigned to the Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall facility were calling out on a daily basis, due to the unchecked inmate violence.
Last year, overcrowding at the facility forced police to wait with suspects in their squad cars in the parking lot for hours.
OVERCROWDED LA SLAMMER LEAVES JUVENILES IN SQUAD CARS FOR HOURS AS POLICE WAIT IN LINE TO DROP THEM OFF
An aerial view of Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, California. Some probation officers in the facility as well as others have been placed on leave since Jan. 1 for a range of alleged offenses, officials said Monday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
As Fox News Digital has reported, Los Angeles has shied away from prosecuting juveniles for minor offenses – so the ones who do make it to lockup are accused of serious and often violent crimes. Last summer, the juvenile hall endured an inmate riot and a jailbreak. On the night of the escape, 60 officers out of 100 scheduled to work that shift had failed to show up, according to the LA Times report.
And although it is a juvenile facility, there are still offenders housed there who are above the age of 18.
The result is that probation officers, typically trained for desk jobs that focus on the supervised release of low-level offenders, are now being forced to confront violent individuals without the training, protective equipment or compensation given to correctional officers, according to Arnold Peter, a lawyer for hundreds of probation officers in a class action lawsuit against the county.
“The job of the probation officer in the last seven to 10 years has changed pretty dramatically,” he told Fox News Digital.
And juvenile inmates have been growing bolder at the same time.
“Youth offenders feel like there are few restraints on their ability to be violent,” he said.
Despite complaints from probation officers, on-the-job safety remains a concern. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
He said county leadership, structural failures and a lack of funding are to blame, but he is hopeful the management shakeup will help improve the situation.
“I hope that someone with this management change can think about that issue and not kick this lawsuit down the road,” he said. “Fix the issues. Provide adequate compensation, and put this behind them – otherwise, it will cost them exponentially more.”
Peter said he filed the class action in part because the county tried to staunch its staffing problems by ordering employees with medical restrictions to take on shifts at the juvenile facilities. Then it got worse.
“These people were constantly getting injured,” he said. “Sometimes there’s as much violence in the juvenile halls as in the adult prisons.”
The headquarters of the Los Angeles County Department of Probation. (Los Angeles County Department of Probation)
The county is trying to have the case thrown out, but Peter said he expects the procedural move to fail after the next hearing on July 25.
On top of the probation department’s funding problems, the county is facing a number of whistleblower retaliation lawsuits aimed at the district attorney’s office – two of which have ended in multimillion-dollar payouts – and at least one other major labor lawsuit from Viera Rosa’s predecessor, Alfredo Gonzales.
Gonzales’s lawsuit states that he repeatedly told the county board of supervisors that the department was so understaffed that it violated state law. When state inspectors conducted a review of Los Angeles’ juvenile facilities, he told them that compliance issues were due to the staffing shortage.
Then he was fired.
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For sale in San Francisco: A 45-foot-tall metal sculpture of a naked woman.
Her name is R-Evolution. Her hair is pulled back and her facial expression is serene. Her mechanized chest expands and contracts, as if she’s breathing. And she tips the scales at 13,000 pounds (not that it’s anyone’s business what a lady weighs).
She will stand in Embarcadero Plaza across from the historic Ferry Building until October. Then she goes on sale. The artist says “she can go anywhere in the world,” but whoever buys or leases her will need a crane and a 60- to 80-foot bucket lift to resurrect her.
Since she was first unveiled as a temporary installation in April 2025, the giant statue, created by artist Marco Cochrane and modeled after California dancer and singer Deja Solis, has spurred debate about whether privately funded works are really public art. It also questions whether R-Evolution is a celebration of femininity in a free-spirited city that has long embraced public nudity or a hypersexualized shock piece from a male artist.
But debate, per the public and private entities who brought her to the plaza, is kind of the point. Art, they say, is supposed to be controversial.
An attempt to revitalize public space
R-Evolution is part of Big Art Loop, a privately funded initiative that aims to bring up to 100 temporarily installed large-scale sculptures — a minimum of 10 feet high or wide preferred — to public spaces along a 34-mile walking and biking trail over the next few years.
R-Evolution in Embarcadero Plaza in April 2025.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
Big Art Loop is funded by the Sijbrandij Foundation, a nonprofit established by billionaire Sid Sijbrandij, co-founder of the software company GitLab. It is curated by the art production agency Building 180, in partnership with the city’s Recreation and Parks Department and other public agencies.
“We’re going to continue to lean in to our arts and culture because that is driving our comeback here in San Francisco,” Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a September video promoting the Big Art Loop.
A city news release last year said R-Evolution’s arrival “aligns with San Francisco’s broader efforts to revitalize downtown” by increasing foot traffic to the battered business district, where office vacancy rates soared to record-high rates of more than 30% amid the pandemic-era pivot to remote work.
Controversial lady and Burning Man
Like a few of the Big Art Loop pieces, R-Evolution originally debuted at Burning Man, towering above the sweaty and stoned desert masses in 2015.
Critics of R-Evolution say the statue and other massive pieces along the billionaire-backed Big Art Loop did not get as much community input and were not subject to the same intense scrutiny by the San Francisco Arts Commission as other public artworks.
“I think what a lot of people, myself included, are frustrated by is the fact that these private entities are able to remake the public landscape in their own image,” Max Blue, a San Francisco Examiner art critic, told Gazetteer San Francisco in October, adding: “I don’t like these sculptures. I think a lot of them are just left over from Burning Man.”
Visual artist DJ Meisner told the Gazetteer: “It’s just so clear when you see the art that it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m supposed to be unbelievably wealthy and high looking at this.’ I’m neither of those things, so I’m just annoyed to be looking at it.”
Female representation or inappropriate?
Before R-Evolution was installed, an art vendor with a booth in Embarcadero Plaza wrote in a letter to the Arts Commission, saying she thought the statue, whose bare butt faces the Ferry Building, “might be very inappropriate for children.”
Another vendor wrote: “A naked woman statue designed by a man feels out of step with the times.”
The creator of the piece, Cochrane, said in a statement: “Women’s presence in public art is rare. When they are depicted, it is often through outdated or passive narratives. R-Evolution challenges that. She stands strong, aware, and grounded — calling for a world where all people can walk freely and without fear.”
Love her or hate her, she gets eyeballs
Julie Richter, a spokeswoman for Big Art Loop, told me in an email Thursday that R-Evolution, which had been slated for removal in April, got “very positive” feedback that led to her Arts Commission-approved extended stay through October. That feedback included positive reviews from most tourists, art vendors and nearby local businesses, according to a pitch to extend the statue’s stay by Big Art Loop and Building 180.
Near R-Evolution’s current perch, Vaillancourt Fountain — a colossal, crumbling Brutalist concrete sculpture that was unveiled in Embarcadero Plaza in 1971 and became a skateboarding mecca — was equally reviled and revered. Despite fans’ efforts to save it, the city removed it this spring.
Today’s top stories
The Visalia sign seen from Highway 99.
(Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)
These are California’s most affordable and least affordable cities
What we know about the boat accident near Alcatraz
- A memorial cruise turned tragic when a boat sank near Alcatraz Island, leaving one passenger dead, three missing and 17 rescued.
- The search for the missing was challenged not only by high winds and rough seas, but because the incident took place in a particularly deep channel of the bay dredged for cargo ships.
Scientists fear when the San Andreas fault finally snaps
- Scientists warn the region’s long earthquake drought is building dangerous strain on the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults, raising the odds of a devastating multi-county “Big One” in coming decades.
- With scenarios forecasting violent shaking from downtown L.A. to the Inland Empire, experts say the fault’s growing stress is a stark reminder to strengthen preparedness before nature resets the clock.
What else is going on
Commentary and opinions
This morning’s must-read
Other must-reads
For your downtime
The dining room at Baldi in Beverly Hills.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Going out
Staying in
A question for you: As temperatures rise in SoCal, how do you stay cool?
Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.
And finally … your photo of the day
The trunk of a flooded car is seen in an underground garage along Palm Avenue in West Hollywood after a water main break sent thousands of gallons of water rushing down Sunset Boulevard and the surrounding area on Thursday morning.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Today’s photo is from Times photographer Allen J. Schaben in West Hollywood, after a water main break sent thousands of gallons of water rushing down Sunset Boulevard and the surrounding area on Thursday morning.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Hailey Branson-Potts, staff writer
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.
Denver Broncos football is right around the corner.
As the 2026 World Cup nears its July 19 final, sports fans will soon begin turning their attention toward NFL training camps. The Broncos are set to open training camp on July 31 — two weeks from today — with the first of 14 practices open* to fans.
*Due to construction at the team’s facility, capacity at practice will be limited to approximately 1,000 fans, so (free) tickets are required to attend. Those tickets became available on July 1 and were quickly claimed. (Tickets are sometimes returned, though, so fans should check Ticketmaster for potential available tickets.)
Broncos training camp schedule
- Friday, July 31: 10 a.m.
- Saturday, Aug. 1: 10 a.m.
- Monday, Aug. 3: 10 a.m.
- Tuesday, Aug. 4: 10 a.m.
- Wednesday, Aug. 5: 10 a.m.
- Thursday, Aug. 6: 10 a.m.
- Friday, Aug. 7: 10 a.m.
- Saturday, Aug. 8: 10 a.m.
- Monday, Aug. 10: 10 a.m.
- Tuesday, Aug. 11: 10 a.m.
- Wednesday, Aug. 12: 10 a.m.
- Monday, Aug. 17: 10 a.m.
- Tuesday, Aug. 18: 10 a.m.
- Wednesday, Aug. 19: 10 a.m.
Fans should note that Denver’s practice schedule is subject to change due to weather. Be sure to check the team’s Twitter/X page for the latest updates on the practice schedule.
In addition to the open camp practices, the Broncos will play three preseason games in August, including two at home. After that, Denver will open the season against the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football on Sept. 14.
Social: Follow Broncos Wire on Facebook and Twitter/X! Did you know: These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans.
Letter to the Editor: Apartment Vacancy Rates Paint an Incomplete Picture
By David Malcolm | Voice of San Diego
In last Saturday’s “Politics Report,” Will Huntsberry tackled the thorny issue of apartment vacancy rates (apparently the highest in this century) and the impact on affordability. He also correctly wrote that the city of San Diego needs “strategies beyond build, build, build.”
What’s Really Happening
My company owns and operates apartment rental complexes in San Diego County (San Marcos, Encinitas, La Jolla, El Cajon and South Bay) and in Temecula (Riverside County). Here is what we are seeing.
Base rents are stable … but offers of two months’ free rent are common. That is a de facto 16.7 percent reduction on annualized rents. Reducing base rents is not possible in the face of rent control measures and, even more importantly, bank loan covenants. Thus, concessions like two months’ free rent are not hard to find.
Read more
New study shows promising step forward in improving Parkinson’s treatment
by Nicole Abrams | Times of San Diego
A small molecule was found to increase the benefits and reduce the side effects of the standard drug for Parkinson’s disease, according to a new study from UC San Diego startup called Sinopia Biosciences.
L-dopa or levodopa is the main treatment for Parkinson’s disease, but its benefits wane over time and can cause involuntary movements called dyskinesia. About 90% of patients with Parkinson’s disease develop dyskinesia in 9 or more years of using L-dopa, and 70% develop motor fluctuations in 9 or more years of using the drug, according to the study.
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