In a determined crackdown on misconduct, LA County Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa has placed another four officers on leave after uncovering fresh incidents of violence among youths at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, as reported by GovDelivery. These suspensions come in the wake of 12 officers being sidelined since January under suspicions of contributing to a "culture of violence" that has beleaguered the Downey-based detention facility.
The move to put more officers on leave was informed by an ongoing internal review that revealed additional episodes of detainee altercations, during which staff purportedly failed to intervene properly, Viera Rosa told CBS News Los Angeles. The scrutiny heightened after a December incident where video footage caught several detainees assaulting a peer as officers looked on, some appeared to be smirking, amidst the chaos, the victim, a minor, ended up with a broken nose and was purportedly denied timely medical care, as relayed in a courtroom by the youth's attorney.
Emphasizing the principle of rectitude that the probation department purports to uphold, Viera Rosa asserted that the current administrative actions reflect a zero-tolerance stance toward negligence or abuse under his jurisdiction. "My commitment to dig deeper into potential wrongdoing, to take immediate action, and to publicly disclose my actions should make it clear that we will not tolerate anything that creates or contributes to a culture of violence in our juvenile facilities," he said, as detailed by KTLA.
The attention these incidents have attracted led to an intervention by external entities, with the California Attorney General now handling the probe into the youth-on-youth violence cases while the probation department's own Internal Affairs Unit is undergoing an overhaul. This series of actions aims to assure an unbiased inquiry into the matters dragging the reputation the facilities once has aiming at the idyll of reforming the institution and restoring trust in its ability to safeguard and rehabilitate the incarcerated youth, according to a spokesperson for Viera Rosa. The decision to engage the California Attorney General's Office incarnates the department's commitment to impartiality and thoroughness in rooting out corruption and malfeasance from within its ranks, as echoed in statements from the Probation Department Chief.
