The Los Angeles County Probation Department provides services for those placed on probation within

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Cal Remington is the current interim chief

probation officer A probation and parole officer is an official appointed or sworn to investigate, report on, and supervise the conduct of convicted offenders on probation or those released from incarceration to community supervision such as parole. Most probati ...

. The department is the largest probation department in the world.

History

The department was established in 1903 with the enactment of California's first probation laws. Captain Augustus C. Dodds was appointed as first chief probation officer of Los Angeles County.History of the department
Los Angeles County Probation Department. The first

juvenile detention facility In criminal justice systems, a youth detention center, known as a juvenile detention center (JDC),Stahl, Dean, Karen Kerchelich, and Ralph De Sola. ''Abbreviations Dictionary''. CRC Press, 20011202. Retrieved 23 August 2010. , . juvenile de ...

, now known as Central Juvenile Hall, was established on Eastlake Avenue in the city of Los Angeles in 1912. Also in 1912, the new

Los Angeles County Charter LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

made the county probation officer a county administrative officer and brought all department employees under the

merit system The merit system is the process of promoting and hiring government employees based on their ability to perform a job, rather than on their political connections. It is the opposite of the spoils system. History The earliest known example of a me ...

. The El Retiro School for Girls was established in

Sylmar Sylmar is a suburban neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley and is the northernmost neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles. Historically known for its profusion of sylvan olive orchards, Sylmar can trace its past to the 18th century and th ...

in 1919. By 1920, the department had 27 deputy probation officers, handling 1,893 juvenile court petitions and 690 adult cases each month. In 1921, W.H. Holland was named chief probation officer. In 1928, the department opened its first branch office, in

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

. In 1931, Kenyon J. Scudder was appointed chief probation officer. The department began its forestry camp program and established the first Community Coordination Council, initiatives which later was models for the California Conservation Corps and other programs. In 1935, the department opened its second branch area office, in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

. In 1938, probation services were extended to Los Angeles Municipal Courts. In 1939,

Karl Holton Karl Holton (April 10, 1898 — January 9, 1978) worked at the Los Angeles County Probation Department from the late 1920s to early 1960s. During his career, Holton became the head of the county's probation department in 1938 before moving to the ...

was appointed chief probation officer; he left in 1943 to assume the position of first director of the newly created California Youth Authority; John M. Zuck was appointed to replace him. By 1940, the department has 108 staff members handling 4,063 juvenile and 5,299 adult probation cases. The 1940s saw the creation of the groups guidance program to work with juvenile

gangs A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectivel ...

. In 1946, a year-long deputy probation officer trainee program was established. In 1952, Karl Holton returned to the department as chief probation officer and "instituted full-scale reorganization and decentralization of the department," with numerous area offices opening countywide. In 1954, Harold R. Muntz was appointed new chief deputy probation officer. Los Padrinos, the second juvenile hall, opened in 1957, and responsibility for juvenile halls was officially transferred to the probation department from the old probation committee. In 1960, the department had grown to have 2,200 staff members, and reorganized itself into four divisions: field services, juvenile facilities, administrative services, and a medical division. Five hundred field services deputy probation officers "investigated 25,000 adult and 16,500 juvenile cases each year and supervised 24,500 adult and 15,000 juvenile probationers from 11 area offices," and an additional hundred deputies "worked with almost 1,000 boys in 10 camps." In 1961, the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legisla ...

adopted juvenile court reform laws, following recommendations from the governor's commission, in the first major reform since 1903. In 1962, the department's headquarters moved to the new

Los Angeles County Hall of Records The Los Angeles County Hall of Records sits in the northern end of the Civic Center in Downtown Los Angeles. The high-rise building by Richard Neutra (co-designed by Robert Alexander) is an example of international style architecture. The build ...

Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...

, and Leland C. Carter was appointed chief probation officer. In 1965, the department opened the San Fernando Valley Juvenile Hall in the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

in the county's northeast, relieving overcrowding elsewhere. That year, there were more than 3,300 employees in thirteen area offices, four specialized offices, fourteen camps and schools, and four juvenile detention facilities. Longtime Probation Department employee Kenneth E. Kirkpatric was appointed chief probation officer in 1968.

Juvenile halls and camps

Probation department personnel oversee the following three juvenile halls and eighteen juvenile camps: Juvenile halls: *Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall,

Central Juvenile Hall Central Juvenile Hall (also known as Eastlake Juvenile Hall or Central) is a youth detention center in Los Angeles County. Central houses both boys and girls. The Central Juvenile Hall complex was originally established in 1912 as the first juv ...

(Eastlake),

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

*Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall,

Downey Downey may refer to: People *Downey (surname) *Robert Downey Jr. Places *Downey, California, US *Downey, Idaho, US *Downey, Iowa, US Businesses *W. & D. Downey, photographic studio *Downey Studios, created out of a former Boeing plant Schools * ...

(Closed) Juvenile camps: *Camp Afflerbaugh-Paige, La Verne **Consists of Camp Clinton B. Afflerbaugh and Camp Joseph M. Paige *Camp David Gonzales, Calabasas Closed *Camp Karl Holton,

(rented out to State of California; inmates are housed in Camp Smith) Closed * Camp Vernon Kilpatrick, Malibu *Camp William Mendenhall,

Lake Hughes Lake Hughes is an unincorporated community in northern Los Angeles County, California. It is in the Sierra Pelona Mountains, northwest of Palmdale and north of the Santa Clarita Valley, in the Angeles National Forest. It is on the sag pond wat ...

Closed *Camp Fred Miller, Malibu Closed *Camp John Munz,

Closed *Camp Glenn Rockey, San Dimas *Camp Louis Routh, Tujunga (closed) *Camp Joseph Scott,

Santa Clarita Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, the 17t ...

(female inmates) (notable for also housing a

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of auto ...

to educate its inmates) *Camp Kenyon Scudder,

(female inmates with mental health issues ) * Challenger Memorial Youth Center, Lancaster **Facility including six juvenile camps: Camp Michael Smith, Camp Francis J. Scobee, Camp

Judith Resnik Judith Arlene Resnik (April 5, 1949 – January 28, 1986) was an American electrical engineer, software engineer, biomedical engineer, pilot and NASA astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster. She was the fourth woman, ...

, Camp

Ellison Onizuka was an American astronaut, engineer, and USAF test pilot from Kealakekua, Hawaii, who successfully flew into space with the Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' on STS-51-C. He died in the destruction of the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'', on which he wa ...

, Camp

Gregory Jarvis Gregory Bruce Jarvis (August 24, 1944 – January 28, 1986) was an American engineer and astronaut who died during the destruction of the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' on mission STS-51-L, where he was serving as payload specialist for Hughes ...

, Camp

Ronald McNair Ronald Erwin McNair (October 21, 1950 – January 28, 1986) was an American NASA astronaut and physicist. He died during the launch of the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' on mission STS-51-L, in which he was serving as one of three mission spec ...

) CLOSED *Dorothy F. Kirby Center,

(mental health facility for male and females)

External links

References

{{US-law-enforcement-agency-stub Probation Department Probation departments of the United States