Officers at Los Angeles County’s two juvenile halls frequently call out for work — meaning they don’t show up for their scheduled shifts — due to violence at the facilities. Of the 540 assigned to the county's largest facility this month, half were on family or medical leave for at least part of the month, according to Probation Department records. But with fewer staffers, the halls become even more dangerous — and the reasons to call out more compelling, the Los Angeles Times reports. Officers are sometimes required to stay for a double shift to address last-minute staffing problems, exhausting them and ruining whatever plans they had for the day. To fill the gaps, the county paid tens of millions in overtime last year.
“I have to be very frank about this: There’s a callout culture,” L.A. County Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa, who took the top job last year, told county supervisors at a meeting in May. “The level of callout is just something so extraordinary that exists nowhere else.” The lack of staffing also impacts the daily lives of juveniles locked up in the facilities. Maya Ocasio, 18, who was incarcerated at Los Padrinos last summer, said she spent huge amounts of time locked in her cell due to staffing shortages. “There was a time where we didn’t get out of our rooms until close to dinner time. ... They’d say, ‘Sorry we couldn’t do anything. The staff isn’t here. It’s only me right now,’” Ocasio said. “Look, I’m OK with being alone, but being in a cell for that long, you go f— crazy.”