Los Angeles County Probation Department
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The Los Angeles County Probation Department provides services for those placed on probation within
Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. Guillermo Viera Rosa is the current chief
probation officer A probation or parole officer is an official appointed or sworn to investigate, report on, and supervise the conduct of convicted offenders on probation or those released from incarceration to community supervision such as parole. Most probat ...
. The department is the largest probation department in the world.


History

The department was established in 1903 with the enactment of California's first probation laws. Captain Augustus C. Dodds was appointed as first chief probation officer of Los Angeles County.History of the department
Los Angeles County Probation Department.
The first juvenile detention facility, now known as Central Juvenile Hall, was established on Eastlake Avenue in the city of Los Angeles in 1912. Also in 1912, the new Los Angeles County Charter made the county probation officer a county administrative officer and brought all department employees under the
merit system The merit system is the process of promoting and hiring government employees based on their ability to perform a job, rather than on their political connections. It is the opposite of the spoils system. History The earliest known example of a ...
. The El Retiro School for Girls was established in Sylmar in 1919. By 1920, the department had 27 deputy probation officers, handling 1,893 juvenile court petitions and 690 adult cases each month. In 1921, W.H. Holland was named chief probation officer. In 1928, the department opened its first branch office, in
Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...
. In 1931, Kenyon J. Scudder was appointed chief probation officer. The department began its forestry camp program and established the first Community Coordination Council, initiatives which later were models for the
California Conservation Corps The California Conservation Corps, CCC, is a department of the government of California, falling under the state Cabinet (government), cabinet-level California Resources Agency. The CCC is a voluntary work development program specifically for me ...
and other programs. In 1935, the department opened its second branch area office, in Pasadena. In 1938, probation services were extended to Los Angeles Municipal Courts. In 1939, Karl Holton was appointed chief probation officer; he left in 1943 to assume the position of first director of the newly created California Youth Authority; John M. Zuck was appointed to replace him. By 1940, the department has 108 staff members handling 4,063 juvenile and 5,299 adult probation cases. The 1940s saw the creation of the group's guidance program to work with juvenile gangs. In 1946, a year-long deputy probation officer trainee program was established. In 1952, Karl Holton returned to the department as chief probation officer and "instituted full-scale reorganization and decentralization of the department," with numerous area offices opening countywide. In 1954, Harold R. Muntz was appointed new chief deputy probation officer. Los Padrinos, the second juvenile hall, opened in 1957, and responsibility for juvenile halls was officially transferred to the probation department from the old probation committee. In 1960, the department had grown to have 2,200 staff members and reorganized itself into four divisions: field services, juvenile facilities, administrative services, and a medical division. Five hundred field services deputy probation officers "investigated 25,000 adult and 16,500 juvenile cases each year and supervised 24,500 adult and 15,000 juvenile probationers from 11 area offices," and an additional hundred deputies "worked with almost 1,000 boys in 10 camps." In 1961, the
California State Legislature The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...
adopted juvenile court reform laws, following recommendations from the governor's commission, in the first major reform since 1903. In 1962, the department's headquarters moved to the new Los Angeles County Hall of Records at
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, and Leland C. Carter was appointed chief probation officer. In 1965, the department opened the San Fernando Valley Juvenile Hall in the
San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...
in the county's northeast, relieving overcrowding elsewhere. That year, there were more than 3,300 employees in thirteen area offices, four specialized offices, fourteen camps and schools, and four juvenile detention facilities. Longtime Probation Department employee Kenneth E. Kirkpatric was appointed chief probation officer in 1968.


SYTF Campuses, Juvenile Halls and Camps

Probation department personnel oversee the following two juvenile halls, seventeen juvenile camps, and two SYTF campuses: SYTF (Secure Youth Treatment Facility) *Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall, Sylmar *Campus Kilpatrick, Camp Vernon Kilpatrick, Malibu, California, Malibu Juvenile halls: * Central Juvenile Hall (Eastlake),
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*Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, Downey Juvenile camps: *Camp Afflerbaugh-Paige, La Verne **Consists of Camp Clinton B. Afflerbaugh and Camp Joseph M. Paige *Camp David Gonzales, Calabasas (Closed) *Camp Karl Holton, Sylmar (rented out to State of California; inmates are housed in Camp Smith) (Closed) * Camp Vernon Kilpatrick, Malibu, California, Malibu *Camp William Mendenhall, Lake Hughes (Closed) *Camp Fred Miller, Malibu, California, Malibu (Closed) *Camp John Munz, Lake Hughes (Closed) *Camp Glenn Rockey, San Dimas *Camp Louis Routh, Tujunga (Closed) *Camp Joseph Scott, Santa Clarita (female inmates) (notable for also housing a
charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...
to educate its inmates) *Camp Kenyon Scudder, Santa Clarita (female inmates with mental health issues ) * Challenger Memorial Youth Center, Lancaster **Facility including six juvenile camps: Camp Michael Smith, Camp Francis J. Scobee, Camp Judith Resnik, Camp Ellison Onizuka, Camp Gregory Jarvis, Camp Ronald McNair (Closed) *Dorothy F. Kirby Center,
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
(mental health facility for male and females)


External links

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References

{{County of Los Angeles Probation Department Probation departments of the United States