U.S. Investigator Says L.A. Juvenile Hall Is Among ‘Worst’ He’s Seen

A team of experts hired by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate conditions in Los Angeles County’s juvenile halls says that--despite county officials’ efforts to stymie the probe--it is alarmed by what it has seen so far.

“Clearly, the (Central Juvenile) Hall is one of the worst I’ve ever visited in any major metropolitan area in America,” said Ira Schwartz, a member of the federal team that came to Los Angeles last fall. “And we have seen the vast majority of the 390 public juvenile detention centers in the U.S.”

The investigation focuses on allegations of physical abuse, severe overcrowding and a host of civil rights violations. The county’s three juvenile halls--Central Juvenile in Lincoln Heights, Los Padrinos in Downey and San Fernando Valley in Sylmar--house nearly 2,000 children, 600 above capacity, who are awaiting either trial or placement.

The facilities are the subject of an unusual lawsuit filed March 27 by the Justice Department against the presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court and other county officials. The local officials are accused of obstructing the federal civil rights investigation, under the guise of protecting juveniles’ confidentiality.

Cites Continual Interference

“Political interference and attempts to keep this inquiry from moving ahead started even before we arrived on the scene and for almost every minute of the week we were there,” said an exasperated Schwartz in an interview last week.

A source close to the investigation said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gabriel A. Gutierrez, presiding judge of the juvenile court, had gone to “extraordinary lengths to stonewall” the investigation by lobbying top Justice Department officials, directly or indirectly. He generated discussions as high as the office of William Bradford Reynolds, assistant attorney general for the department’s civil rights division, the source said.

Reached Friday, Gutierrez branded the suggestion “ridiculous. . . . To say I went to anybody is absurd. . . . My interest is in protecting the children. . . . We had an agreement, and I signed the order (granting the team access to Juvenile Hall).”

A Justice Department spokesman refused comment on whether Gutierrez had contacted high-level department officials.

A hearing on the federal government’s motion for an injunction has been set for April 21 before U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi in Los Angeles.

The federal investigation began early last year, after the Justice Department received complaints involving young inmates’ civil rights from staff members of the Probation Department, including some employees within the facilities, and from interested child advocate organizations. A 1984 Times investigative series had also triggered concern, sources said.

Union spokesmen for both the Supervising Deputy Probation Officers’ Assn. Joint Council, Local 660, and for Local 685 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents probation workers at the juvenile halls, have disclaimed responsibility for initiating any complaints, as have several other union and professional groups in a position to know of juvenile hall conditions. Most said they believe that the Probation Department is doing the best it can with limited resources.

However, the federal team said it wants to investigate allegations that include complaints of physical abuse, arbitrary and capricious use of punishment, failure to ensure the safety of the children, serious overcrowding, inadequate health care, mail and telephone censorship, and the mingling of youngsters awaiting trial with those who have already been convicted and sentenced.

Some Were Distressed

And, despite limited access to the facilities and juvenile records, some team members said they were distressed to find that many of the allegations were true and continuing: juveniles are hogtied, packed closely, ill-protected against violent youngsters, and subjected to verbal, psychological and physical abuse by the staff.

Youngsters who are management problems or are emotionally disturbed and boys who display effeminate traits are held in an isolation unit known variously as “the box” or “the hole,” the team found.

And, one team member complained, the federal visit was viewed with such hostility that Chief Probation Officer Barry Nidorf “never even bothered to come talk to us.”

Nidorf, chief of the Los Angeles County Probation Department for the last two years, said in an interview last week that the only problem in the juvenile halls that he is aware of is “overcrowding.”

“We sleep kids on the floor but they look on that as a privilege since they are together in the day room,” he said.

‘Not Aware of Complaints’

“We were not aware of complaints about physical abuse or restraint of civil rights. . . . We’ve had two suicides in the past four years, but we haven’t had gang rapes, mini-riots or attempted escapes.”

In reply, Schwartz snapped: “I’d encourage Mr. Nidorf to go through his facilities if he thinks overcrowding is the only problem.”

A team consisting of Justice Department attorneys Dan Jacobs and Gleam Davis, and consultants Schwartz and Jerome Miller, both noted experts in the field of child detention, managed to tour Central Juvenile Hall and review some juvenile records during a 1985 visit.

Schwartz, who headed the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention under former President Jimmy Carter, is now a senior fellow at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs in Minneapolis. Miller, who closed down Massachusetts’ juvenile reformatories 14 years ago while head of that state’s Department of Youth Services, now directs the National Center for Institutions and Alternatives in Alexandria, Va. In the 1970s, he was considered for the job of chief probation officer in Los Angeles County.

Delayed by Wrangle

The team said it spent most of its week on the West Coast sitting around while lawyers wrangled over whether and under what conditions the investigation could continue.

“The judge (Gutierrez) got upset. We signed something saying we wouldn’t talk about anything we saw, but the last I heard he wanted us to swear to it in court and the Justice Department balked,” Miller said.

Both sides have somewhat technical explanations for their failure to resolve the impasse, despite three trips to Los Angeles by Justice Department attorneys.

“I can assure you that Justice would not file, particularly with this Administration, unless the situation was particularly bad and all efforts to move forward in an amicable and appropriate way were exhausted,” Schwartz said. “It’s a rock-bottom, last-ditch resort and people’s lives are in danger.”

Some believe that local officials are attempting to thwart the federal investigation because they want to cover up inexcusable conditions, while others question the wisdom of sending in two consultants known to oppose the institutionalization of children.

Fox to Watch Henhouse

“I think maybe I’d say, ‘Hey, maybe somebody is sending the fox to watch the henhouse,’ ” said Susan Cohen, executive director of the California Probation, Parole and Correctional Assn.

Critics of the present juvenile detention system in Los Angeles County say that innovative approaches are sabotaged by those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, such as unions who fear loss of jobs if juvenile halls here are abolished as they have been elsewhere. In their place, some states and cities have turned to small group homes and specialized foster care.

“It’s a political issue that has nothing to do with the care of kids,” Miller said. “There are few incentives to do anything else, and much in place that is hard to undo.”

Solutions, he said, do not depend on more money; the cost of detaining each youngster is already more than $30,000 yearly. “There is no question the problem is solvable.”