The LA County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Donald H. Blevins as the new head of County Probation Department on Tuesday.
And most people didn’t notice—-and if they did, they didn’t care.
But they should care. We all should care.
For one thing, the new chief will oversee an LA County agency with a $692.8 million budget.
(To give you a reference point, the entire LA City Fire Department has a budget of $533 million.)
For another thing, every kid who runs afoul of the law in Los Angeles City or County will likely either be sent into some kind of juvenile detention facility run by Mr. Blevins and his agency. Or he or she will be given probation wth a probation officer who will soon also be under Mr. Blevins jurisdiction.
This also means that the various programs that are purportedly designed to help our county’s lawbreaking kids come out better from their detention experience (or their probation experience), than they went in, will also be under Mr. Blevins care and control.
Rhus Mr. Blevins has a number of big challenges ahead of him when he takes over the post on April 19..
The LA County probation camps in particular, are becoming increasingly scandal-ridden.
For instance, there was a lawsuit brought against LA County by the Southern California ACLU and others last month regarding the treatment of adolescents at the county’s Camp Challenger where the court filing outlines Dickensian conditions.
I have heard repeatedly that the Camp Challenger lawsuit is the tip of the probation camp iceberg. And when I spoke to a County government insider yesterday, he did nothing to disabuse of that perspective. Instead he admitted that he too had heard that things were bad in the camps, worse than had yet been made public.
So who is this Donald H. Blevins and what can we expect of him?
We know that he is the former head of probation for Alameda County. But what else should we know?
(To be continued…)
Expecting law enforcement to stop crime is like expecting a new tire to stop an engine from pinging. Cops are necessary, but not the answer to the ultimate problem. That being said, what we have in California are a bunch of faulty tires, prone to rolling out of alignment and blowing out. We’re getting our tires from the wrong places.
I expect parents to raise and teach their own kids NOT to commit crimes. The police, schools, cops, juvenille hall, Jesus Christcan’t stop crime. Even Obama can’t stop crime.
If anyone has ever been to juvenile hall during parents visting hours, it doesn’t take a PHD to see why most of the kids are in juvenile detention. And with all the little cholitos in juvenile hall, who almost run the place, don’t expect kids to learn better behavoir in juvenile hall.
Maybe we should have qualification tests before anyone is allowed to raise kids.
Try China.
WTF, I think you’re pretty obviously wrong – there are lots of forces that push people towards and away from crime, not just parents. Employment opportunity, education, age, friends, police presence, etc. are all potential factors.
Celeste Fremon Says:
February 17th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
And I have deleted a number of comments
that dismissed an entire class of people as freaks.
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Hey Scott, looks like Celeste made the same connection I did in regards to Rob’s comment. Looks like both Celeste and I are “talking to ourselves”.
BTW,
Good call Celeste.
Mavis,
I was referring to young kids (juvenile delinquents); a parent is and should be the biggest influence in his/hers young life.
Employment opportunities aren’t that relevant to a kid on a path to a life of crime and delinquency.
Of course as Oprah says, the three largest factors in a person’s life are education, education and education. In the formative years of a kid’s life the education he receives at home is the most important education he receives. Schools are designed to teach
reading, writing and arithmetic and not morals, ethics and love and respect of family.
“Hey Scott, looks like Celeste made the same connection I did in regards to Rob’s comment. Looks like both Celeste and I are “talking to ourselvesâ€.”
I never saw Rob’s comment–I thought you were addressing me, since your “freaks” response appeared immediately after my comment, hence my assumption you were talking to yourself (yours was the only “freaks” comment I saw).
Fair enough. Understandable.
Help! Is anyone going to comment about Donald Blevins? I am both interested and concerned with what leadership skills he brings to a job that will be daunting! The comments so far reflect the headline on Celeste’s post. Does anyone know about his past experience? His ideas for reforming the LA County Department of Probation, which is skidding towards disaster? Enquiring minds want to know!
I work in one of LA County’s probation camps specifically in the school. Minors come to the camps usually for a stay between 3 to 9 months depending on the offense that was committed. Most of them rarely go to school because they or the parents and their district school doesn’t force them too. When they come to us they can barely read, can’t write a simple paragraph, and forget their math skills. It’s unfair to put the blame on the teachers, paraeducators, administrators and probation officers that work hard to educate an already failing student who in many cases make comments such as “I can’t wait to go to county”. Trust me when I say most of the kids locked up have committed far worse crimes then what they have been arrested for they just have been caught. As much as I love the boys I work with they are like my own kids I wouldn’t want to see one on a dark alley. The only way to stop the continuous return is to go back to the way it was a few years ago, regimented, intense counseling, job skills. Minors need to be accountable for their actions or it’s a free pass to do it again and believe me thats exactly what they think.