LA County Probation Dept. Gets New Interim Chief

Guillermo Viera Rosa, a former ex-officio member of the Board of State and Community Corrections with 27 years of experience in probation and parole, has been named the interim chief probation officer of Los Angeles County, officials said Thursday.

Viera Rosa will assume leadership of the troubled department on Friday, replacing outgoing Interim Chief Karen Fletcher.

“I am deeply honored to take on this role,” Viera Rosa said in a statement. “While it will give me responsibility department wide, I want to assure everyone that I remain committed and focused on restructuring our juvenile operations so that they will meet state standards in the long run even as we embrace the county’s `Care First’ model of juvenile justice.”

Viera Rosa takes the job as the largest probation department in the country grapples with allegations by state prosecutors that conditions in its juvenile facilities are “appalling.”

Last month, state Attorney General Rob Bonta filed court papers seeking to force the county to immediately remedy “illegal and unsafe” conditions. The motion filed in Los Angeles Superior Court asks for an order requiring the county to comply with a 2021 judgment ordering improvements in conditions at juvenile halls, including improved staffing levels and ensuring that youth in the county’s care are taken to school and medical appointments.

In March, the Board of Supervisors fired Probation Department Chief Adofo Gonzales, with board Chair Janice Hahn noting that the juvenile halls “are in crisis.” Fletcher was appointed interim chief, but said she planned to retire.

Viera Rosa will oversee a department with 5,520 employees responsible for supervising 28,917 formerly incarcerated adults and 339 pre-disposition and 153 post-disposition youth. In addition, there are currently 1,962 youth under probation supervision at home or in foster care.

His transition to interim chief comes as the Board and the County CEO’s Office attempt to restructure juvenile operations by closing down Central and Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Halls and transferring incarcerated youth to Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, which would be renovated to meet state standards.

Under the plan, Central will be converted to a law enforcement in-take center, while Nidorf will house Secure Youth Treatment Facility youth being returned from state custody. Staffing at all facilities will be boosted by adding several classifications of employees, including peace officers as on- call, substitute probation officers and county employees assigned to non- deputized tasks to free up sworn probation officers for direct supervision of youth, officials said.

Viera Rosa said crews will be working around the clock to prepare Los Padrinos to house pre-disposition youth.

In 2016, then-Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Viera Rosa director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Division of Adult Parole Operations. He was re-appointed in 2020, which qualified him as an ex- officio member of the BSCC.

He resigned in April to become LA County’s chief strategist of juvenile operations, a new position created by the Board of Supervisors to galvanize the county’s efforts to improve and stabilize conditions in the department’s juvenile division.

Viera Rosa, who was born in Puerto Rico, got his start in the probation field by taking a part-time job as a reserve deputy probation officer at the San Bernardino County Juvenile Hall while attending college.

In 1995, he became a full-time probation officer and has served in regional and state positions in Sacramento, the Central Valley, the Bay Area and Los Angeles.