Global Courant 2023-04-12 03:24:55
A probation officer was stabbed in the neck at one of Los Angeles County’s long-troubled parole rooms Monday night, just days before a state oversight board is expected to vote to close the facility.
The officer, described as a supervisor, was slashed in the face and neck sometime after 9 p.m. while working at Barry J. Nidorf Hall’s Secure Youth Track Facility, according to several law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Nidorf houses youths accused of serious crimes, including murder and manslaughter.
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the matter. The Probation Service did not respond to a request for comment.
The supervisor was taken to an area hospital and given stitches for what an official described as a “deep cut to the side of the face”. It was not immediately clear what led up to the attack, but the incident marked the third time since late February that an officer or youth was stabbed at the Secure Youth Track Facility unit.
The sources said the youth who attacked the officer on Monday night was also involved in one of the February stabbings. The district attorney’s office had previously declined to comment on any charges young people may face, based on age.
The district’s youth departments have seen a dramatic spate of violence over the past year, due in part to a massive staff shortage as officers refuse to come to work. The situation has crippled the county’s ability to provide educational or recreational services to youth, leading to increased use of lockdowns and severe damage to the mental and physical health of both officers and minors in LA County custody. Probation chief Adolfo Gonzales was fired last month amid the madhouse.
The chaos could come to a head on Thursday, when the Board of State and Community Corrections can vote to close Nidorf and Central youth halls. While the oversight agency has repeatedly determined since 2021 that the county’s youth halls are “unsuitable” for housing youth, it has also given the parole department a chance to correct its shortcomings. However, the board seemed to be reaching a breaking point last month.
“If the board determines that the facilities are not suitable for the incarceration of juveniles, the county must clear the juvenile halls within 60 days of the determination,” Allison Ganter, the board’s deputy director, wrote in a letter to interim probation chief Karen. Fletcher. last month.
Between Central and Nidorf, the state administration found 39 areas of non-compliance — many of them are due to the personnel crisis. According to the board letter, young people were locked up in their rooms for too long, while officers were not properly trained in the use of force by the department.
The department has not publicly commented on the approaching Board of State and Community Corrections vote. But an email blast sent last week by the union representing probation officers shed some light on what might happen if the corridors were closed.
In the April 5 message, the union said it was unlikely that youths would be released or sent to other provinces as a result of the vote. Instead, the union letter said, they could be housed in Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, which also closed in 2019 after a spate of abuse claims.
Time Staff writer Mussanah Arshad contributed to this report.