On the evening of Monday, April 11, 2022, at 9:37 p.m., a veteran staff member who has worked with youth for more than a decade in Los Angeles County Probation received a text from a friend who also serves on probation. is and was, at the time, Barry J. Niedorf was on duty at the Juvenile Hall.
“BJNJH on lockdown,“The friend wrote.”5 unit disturbance. Minor on the roof. The DPO injured fell from the roof. Teenagers have taken over this facility. Armed units are responding. What are they going to do? shoot them? It doesn’t look good…”
DPO stands for Deputy Probation Officer*, a staff member who works with children in county youth camps and treatment facilities.
Barry J. As is known the facility in question is located in Sylmar, CA, and is only one of three youth halls in the county that still remains open.
Hall was in a worsening state of chaos for weeks, and was also suffering from critical staff shortages, so the DPO was being assigned to the Sylmar facility on a contingency basis. But on Monday, April 11, matters went from bad to worse for both the youth and the employees.
Members of the department’s Special Enforcement Operations Unit (SEO) otherwise known as “armed units” actually appeared (as the staff member wrote in the text above). But, reportedly six members of the SEO injured themselves while trying to control the youth.
There is much more to this story. However, to better understand this new disaster, we need to go back a bit.
bscc factor
In mid-March this year, in response to the emerging threat of the state’s State and Community Reform Board (BSCC), the Central Juvenile Hall may declare ineligible If the county doesn’t make appropriate improvements to youth housing, LA County Probation Chief Adolfo Gonzales sent a notification to Central’s employees saying that both children and employees need to be moved from Central to Barry J. Niedorf Juvenile Hall immediately. The idea was that all would stay in Sylmar for 90 days while necessary repairs were made at Central.
The BSCC sword hanging over the head of the probationer was genuine.
As readers will recall, the last time the BSCC voted unanimously to declare that two of LA County’s juvenile halls—Barry J and Central—were far from complying with many basic standards of care, two Lock-ups were declared”Unsuitable for youth housing. ,,
Still, the sudden nature of the move, which was reportedly insisted upon by county officials, triggered at least two youth riots, as Union Children and accompanying workers arrived at Barry J over the mid-weekend of March.
Unfortunately, according to experienced probation staff members we interviewed, 90 days for cleaning, repairs, and other long-delayed upgrades and maintenance is not close enough time, if appropriately, for both Central kids and employees. going to be habitable. ,
“I’ll write a report about things that need to be fixed,” said one of our sources, “and months would go by, and I check, and see that nothing happened.” This happens over and over again.”
culture of favoritism
The probation sources we spoke to attributed many of the problems at both Central Juvenile Hall and Barry J. to the poor management of many of the people in charge of both facilities, down to the level of the bureau chief, of whom he says They have been promoted and placed in their posts on the basis of favoritism rather than merit
Many praise Chief Gonzales, who came to work in January 2021, as a reformist leader who intends to root out the culture of favoritism and corruption that has long plagued LA County probation. Still, it has not been an easy task, especially for the younger side of probation.
“There are people who underestimated the previous major, and they are doing their best to undermine it,” said one probation veteran.
Still, Gonzales and two of his top representatives, Chief Deputy Probation Officer Adam Bettino, and Chief Deputy Probation Officer Karen Fletcher, are reportedly working to replace essential personnel between supervisors at the two juvenile halls, as well as those higher up. With -up. The executive ladder that places those supervisors, and those under whose supervision disturbing incidents have occurred.
The need for some sort of change in Barry J was demonstrated most recently by the infamous incident of January 29, 2022, when a mystery intruder was able to pass two levels of security at the facility, then proceed to make his way forward. Grow. One or more youth living units, where reportedly still no one stopped the man in a paper painter’s suit and an orange baseball cap as he took out equipment and possibly swabbed as many as 15 children for the COVID virus proceed to do.
This all brings us back to Monday, April 15th
phone and text blackout
Whether or not the mystery intruder was the last straw, Chief Gonzales and his administration have replaced the management of the Barry J. Niedorf Juvenile Hall with a hand-picked new group they hope will begin to turn things around.
Silmar’s new administration was due to begin on Monday, April 11.
But, instead of finding a suitable way to pass the baton to the new slate of supervisors — including making new ones aware of any growing problems — the old administration instead stopped coming to work on Thursday, April 7.
This meant that during the period from Thursday to Monday until the new group arrived, there was reportedly no high-level supervisor on the site.
In addition, when problems began to escalate at Barry J, causing staff members to reach out to their former bosses until the new group took over on Monday, they found that since Thursday, the outgoing Cabal had stopped answering or answering their phones. refused to give. for the scriptures.
And so it was that, by the time the new administration arrived on Monday morning, one or more units at Barry J had reached powder keg condition.
By Monday night the powder keg had blown up, the children were on the roof of an equipment shed at the facility, and a female staff member was chasing the child on the roof. fell down and was injured. Armed units were called, and so on.
The situation is not helped by the fact that a significant percentage of employees assigned to the Sylmar-based facility are not going to work due to untenable conditions. Instead, they say “sick”.
“We don’t have the necessary programs for children, we need more health officials, and minors are attacking staff, and don’t think they will face any consequences for their actions,” said a probation source. , “It has to change.”
pizza treat
So, the problems continue. Sources said that on the evening of Saturday, April 17, three children allegedly tried to escape from the facility, and one of them fell from the roof during an escape attempt and was badly injured.
However, there was one bright spot that occurred earlier in the day, in an effort to reward most of Barry J’s children, who are No Participating in riots, escape attempts, and violence, some justice advocates brought more than 100 pepperoni pizzas to the youth and to the staff assigned to keep them safe.
“The truth is,” said one staff member, “no one feels safe.”
To further clarify the issue, just before 5 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, local 685, the rank and file union for LA County Probation Officers, sent the following “e-gram” message to its members:
,The department is facing a crisis in BJN and as professional peace officers, we are asking all members to consider reporting for duty. You can work OT in incremental shifts that work for you and your family: 2 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours, etc. Any availability is accepted. Just call and give the time you can work.
,We need to try to avoid declaring non-covid emergency by the department, which will trigger another round of deployment.
“We must assist in this effort. It’s on high alert.”
As much as we know.
*Correction: We initially incorrectly defined a “DPO”, which is a Deputy Probation Officer, as a “DSO” or a Detention Service Officer. DPOs typically work in county youth camps and treatment facilities, while DSOs work in juvenile halls. Due to a shortage of hazardous staff, however, some DPOs were hired by Barry J. Being asked to work on a temporary basis at the Niedorf Juvenile Hall. At Witnessa we promise that we do indeed know the difference between the two designations, but did not initially catch the error until two commentators kindly brought it to our attention. (Corrected at 9:56 am, 4-18-2022.)
