July 23, 2025

Media Contact:
prob.news@probation.lacounty.gov
(562) 315-3388

Statement from Los Angeles County Probation Department on Attorney General’s Receivership Announcement

LOS ANGELES – The Department fully acknowledges many of the issues raised by Attorney General Bonta regarding juvenile halls in our county. However, we are deeply concerned with some of the misleading information expressed in the Attorney General’s filing. We are further concerned with his request seeking expansive authority through an expedited court process—despite its far-reaching implications and intent.

Further, Chief Probation Officer Guillermo Viera Rosa has taken aggressive and direct steps to address several of the deficiencies that have plagued the Probation department for decades, particularly around the juvenile halls. Since his appointment, the Chief has worked to stabilize staffing, improve safety protocols including to curb the introduction of dangerous contraband into facilities, increase accountability for staff misconduct, bring fidelity to our internal investigative processes, expand access to medical and mental health services, and realign the juvenile system…all of this despite long-standing bureaucratic and regulatory roadblocks.

Our hope is that a receivership structure, should it be approved, be used as a collaborative tool to help remove obstacles—not as an isolating mechanism that sidelines the people and systems committed to improvements and reform.

Throughout this process, the Department’s focus remains clear: protecting public safety, ensuring that young people remanded by the courts for serious offenses receive appropriate care, increased transparency and accountability, and the opportunity to make meaningful changes to curb decades-long dysfunction.