Reiner Vows Stiff Action on 1st-Time Youth Offenders

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner vowed Monday to fight the county’s growing gang problem during his second four-year term by cracking down on youthful first-time offenders with swift prosecution.

Reiner said at a swearing-in ceremony that the strategy now of concentrating on youths who commit more serious offenses “has a certain amount of surface logic” but has not worked. Its failure, he said, has made the juvenile justice system resemble “a hospital that concentrates on terminal patients--for whom there is virtually no hope--at the expense of those who could be saved through early treatment.”

Reiner’s prescription: “We have to get to kids before they get into gangs. That’s the key. . . . There should be actual and intensive oversight of youthful offenders on the very first occasion that they come to the attention of law enforcement.”

Truancy and curfew violations, he continued, “should be seen for what they are--precursors of ultimately serious criminal behavior--and dealt with accordingly.”

‘Diversion Programs’

“Remedial or diversion programs should be strictly monitored, and at the very first indication that they are not working, the juvenile should be immediately cited into court for formal action,” Reiner said.

Typically, Reiner said, youthful first-time offenders now are “counseled and released” by an arresting officer. Even for subsequent offenses, such youths often receive only “a very informal type of probation,” he said.

Such lenient treatment has sent youths the unintended message that there are few consequences for their criminal actions, Reiner said. By the time the system begins to deal seriously with such minors, he continued, it is often too late: “The system has created a habitual criminal.”

The 50-year-old prosecutor said his office, along with other law enforcement authorities, will continue to “target gang leaders for arrest, prosecution and long-term prosecution.” But without a reordering of priorities, he said, “we are condemned to a treadmill of ineffectiveness.”

Reiner’s address dealt entirely with the problem of county gangs, which he said has “brought home to the entire community the terrible realization that there are no safe enclaves.”

The district attorney did not spell out how the already overburdened juvenile criminal justice system will find the resources to fulfill his vision. But Assistant Dist. Atty. Curt Livesay, a senior Reiner aide, said details of Reiner’s get-tough policy will be disclosed in the coming months.

As with his first oath of office, Reiner on Monday was sworn in at the County Hall of Administration by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne, his wife. He became district attorney by defeating incumbent Robert H. Philibosian in 1983. Earlier, Reiner served as Los Angeles city controller from 1977 until he became city attorney in 1980.