LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath - Prevent Further Youth Deaths, Sexual Abuse and Waste of Taxpayer Dollars at Juvenile Hall!

As citizens of Los Angeles County, especially constituents of the 3rd District represented by Sup. Lindsey Horvath, we demand the County Supervisors reverse course on spending over $400 million annually on a juvenile detention system that led to the May 9th, 2023 death of an 18 year-old at the juvenile hall pictured on this petition. 

We are outraged that the County’s failures are causing youth death while costing us additional tax dollars to:

• pay a $1 million dollar settlement for  sexual and physical abuse of a girl in camp by Probation staff in 2018
• pay hundreds of millions of dollars each year to Probation staff on leave to avoid working in this toxic environment
• prepare to pay up to $3 billion to end lawsuits for sexual abuse of minors in LA County facilities, including Probation halls and camps.

To make matters worse, as the State is preparing to vote on whether to shut down LA County’s Juvenile Halls, Sup. Horvath accepted a deeply flawed plan to send LA County Sherriff’s deputies to work in County youth detention facilities. We are outraged that Sup. Horvath accepted this plan without public comment or scrutiny, when it was submitted to the Board of Supervisors by the County’s Chief Executive Office, and that she supported the appointment of the author of this disastrous plan as Interim Chief Probation Officer. 

Whereas;

We believe the County’s current plan for juvenile justice will lead to further youth death and abuse in LA County facilities, staff crises, failed management by the County’s Chief Executive Office and Probation Department, and waste of taxpayer dollars. 

We believe that the Board of Supervisors approach, including Supervisor Horvath’s vote in favor of a plan that failed to stop the death of a young person in a County facility by using a consent calendar that prevented public comment, is unacceptable. 

We reject the Board’s reversal of decarcerating the youth system, including Supervisor Horvath’s acceptance of the plan from the Chief Executive Office and the hiring of the plan’s author as Interim Chief Probation Officer.

We reject the Board’s reliance on the Interim Chief Probation Officer’s ‘decades of experience in corrections,’ when the Board’s own studies, experts, and motions have declared that experts in youth development, trauma, and rehabilitation, not corrections, are best suited to reverse LA County’s failures in youth justice. 

We support the call by the community groups that make up the LA Youth Uprising (LAYUP) Coalition for the Board to recommit to implementing the ‘Youth Justice Reimagined' road map to transition Court-involved youth from corrections to youth development and to eliminate vacant positions in the Probation Department. 

We therefore;

Call on Supervisor Horvath to meet the following 10 demands.

Implore any member of the public who agrees it is time to end the immoral, fiscally disastrous, and unconscionable status quo in LA County, to sign this petition supporting these community demands.

If you are a resident of LA County, especially a voter in the 3rd District, and want to receive updates, please fill out this form.

1. LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath must commit to appear before her constituents in the 3rd District, along with her Youth Justice Deputy, each month for the remainder of 2023 for town halls dedicated to the crisis in youth justice;
2. Apologize for failing to effectively address the death and sexual abuse of minors in LA's youth detention facilities in her initial actions and for not allowing public scrutiny/comment on the failed plans put forth by the Interim Chief Probation Officer, and the Board of Supervisors in May 2023;
3. Meet with our 'Committee of 3rd District Residents for Youth Justice,' chaired by the authors of this petition and other 3rd District residents with lived experience or other expertise in youth justice, to plan for the town halls and discuss the community demands in this petition, as soon as possible;
4. Relieve the 3rd District’s Deputy for Justice Initiatives (and former director of Risk Management for LA County Probation), Veronica Pawloski, of her duties in any area of youth justice, public safety, or criminal justice matters in our District;
5. Publicly oppose and communicate to State Legislators your opposition to Assembly Bill 695, which would allocate millions of dollars to LA County for new Probation Officer training facilities;
6. Create a role for a non-corrections/law enforcement Youth Justice People's Advocate, in the LA County Dept. of Health Services-Office of Diversion and Re-Entry, selected from a community-generated list of experts in treatment of childhood trauma, to serve alongside the Chief Judge of the Juvenile Court to address the crisis in Youth Justice and require the Chief Probation Officer to report to them;
7. Relieve the Chief Executive Office of its role in youth justice for failing to prevent youth death and for failing to establish a meaningful Secure Youth Treatment Facility in LA County per state requirements nor with non-corrections treatment staff in leadership, and to transfer those responsibilities to the individuals in #6 above;
8. Immediately convene the LA County District Attorney’s Office, and members of our committee, to create protocols to stop any transfers of youth from LA County to adult court and ensure no youth under the age of 25 are transferred to any adult County jail facility or state prison;
9. Immediately convene the head of LA Community College District and the head of the Santa Monica Community College District, the Interim Probation Chief, members of our committee, the 3rd District’s youth justice deputy, and the heads of any community colleges in our District, to ensure that state funds intended for educational programming for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated youth are secured by Summer 2023;
10. Elevate and champion existing and future community-driven solutions to end and repair harms arising from the crisis in LA youth detention, the ongoing failures of the LA County Board of Supervisors’ executive governance on this public policy issue, and the decades of mismanagement by LA County Probation.