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Extracted from Consolidated Report

This investigation was originally published as part of a larger consolidated report containing multiple investigations. View the consolidated PDF for the complete document.

Los Angeles County Grand Jury • 2009-2010

Continuity Committee

54 pages
View PDF View Full Original

Findings 11 findings

F1 Page 447
Entry into the Inglewood Police Department for inspection proved to be difficult, even with a prior day’s call to announce the inspection. The CGJ was turned away; it took a telephone call to the Inglewood Police Chief to gain entry. This was the only city not allowing easy access to the jails.
F2 Page 447
The Temple City Sheriff’s Station staff stated that they have 5 custody assistants, enough to have one person guarding the inmates at all times but, for safety, they would prefer two guards at all times. This would require another 5 custody assistants, which they also stated could not always be justified by the number of inmates, which fluctuates daily.
F3 Page 447
Staff stated that the Pitchess Detention Center East Facility had cameras installed in jail dormitories in 2005. They said they have been very useful at recording the origin of incidences of violence amongst inmates. The cameras were a pilot program but have not yet been installed elsewhere to staff’s knowledge.
F4 Page 447
Maintenance, cleaning and painting issues were noted for six facilities: Long Beach Superior Court - Latex gloves were strewn over a wide area outside the men’s holding cells. There were holes in walls in two areas. The men’s multiple inmate holding cell had a foul odor. Narrow corridors were cluttered with boxes and trash. 2008-2009 Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury Report 419 Metropolitan Traffic Court - The female holding tank had toilet paper plastered on the walls. Hallways were extremely crowded and dirty. Pasadena Court - The interior needs painting. Pico Rivera Station - Painting on floors and doors was unfinished. South Gate PD - Both the exterior and the interior need cleaning and maintenance. Southwest Area LAPD - The interior needs paint and better lighting; it is dark and dingy. The exterior needs better maintenance and debris removal.
F5 Page 448
Seven facilities had maintenance issues: Kenyon Juvenile Justice Center - Paint was flaking off the walls in the cells throughout. Camp Afflerbaugh - The Gymnasium was in dire need of paint. Camp Miller - The shower room and hand washing basin area was unsanitary and in need of plumbing repair. Camp Scott - Gopher holes in the athletic field prevented its use. Broken walkway pavement was dangerous. Camp Scudder - Gopher holes in the athletic field prevented its use. Camp Munz - The bathroom had plaster holes and broken windows. Camp Mendenhall - The drinking fountain near the dining room was inoperable, the gym stage was damaged, and the pavement by the gym was broken, dangerous and roped off.
F6 Page 448
Camps Miller, Kilpatrick, Holton and Routh did not have emergency generators.
F7 Page 448
Staff said that Camp Scott and Camp Scudder had difficulty evacuating during a recent fire due to a lack of buses. 420 2008-2009 Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury Report
F8 Page 449
Camp Scott houses a large mental health facility while all female mental health patients receiving psychotropic medication are housed at nearby Camp Scudder. The Mental Health Director requested that the two camp populations be switched so that patients would be closer to their appropriate service needs.
F9 Page 449
Five Camps had laundry and related sanitation problems: Camp Miller had dozens of bags of backlogged, soiled laundry filled with clothing and bedding. Over 50 large black trash bags of laundry were found on one visit to Camp Miller, leaving the juvenile inmates, in some cases, without clean clothing. At Camps Mendenhall, Munz, Scott and Scudder staff stated that the juvenile inmates spent much of their day doing laundry instead of more productive activities. Machines at Miller, Munz, Mendenhall, Scott and Scudder were inadequate for the volume of laundry. Letters relative to the laundry problem at Camp Miller were sent by this CGJ to Robert B. Taylor, Chief Probation Officer, and to Doyle Campbell, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Public Safety, requesting correction of this situation as it posed an imminent health problem for the juvenile inmates. In addition, the previous year’s CGJ had found serious laundry and maintenance issues at Camp Miller which had not been corrected as of 12/1/08. No response was received by this CGJ to the letters requesting attention to this problem. Staff at Camp Miller said that they had on many occasions spoken with the Management Service Bureau but were unable to get an acceptable response to this problem. They had previously taken their laundry by truck to nearby Camp Gonzales but couldn’t continue to do so because their ratio of staff members to detainees would be in jeopardy.
F10 Page 450
The Challenger Camps have, according to the mental health practitioners on staff, a waiting list of 135 juvenile inmates requiring help. Staffing does not meet the need.
F11 Page 450
The CGJ is well aware of the “Memorandum of Agreement Between The United States and The County of Los Angeles Regarding The Los Angeles Probation Camps.” It is also aware of the appointment of the Monitor and the Monitoring Team, the deadlines for implementation plans and written policies, and the status report timing over the four year period of monitoring the implementation. This CGJ knows that practices to be corrected include juvenile justice and use of force, grievance systems, suicide prevention, and mental health assessment and care. However, inspection of the camps produced systemic evidence of management and organizational shortcomings as well as operational problems. Each and every camp had its own set of problems, indicative of the lack of consistent operational standards applied by Senior Management. It is this CGJ’s finding that each camp commander ran an independent fiefdom, whether by design or by necessity. There appeared to be a disparity of resources available to the different camp directors. Decentralization was the rule that governed the widespread inconsistency.

Recommendations 11