County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas today applauded the National Convention of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People’s endorsement of his call for a federal investigation into the L.A. County Probation Dept., and the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE).
“The trials and tribulations of juvenile probationers in Los Angeles County have now been brought before the entire nation by one of the premier civil rights organizations in America,” the Supervisor said following the organization’s overwhelming adoption of a resolution in support of his efforts to restore public confidence in the departments.
The resolution calls for a criminal and civil investigation into the Probation Dept. and LACOE by the U.S. Dept. of Justice.
The Supervisor is attending the National NAACP Convention in Kansas City where he delivered remarks welcoming members to host city Los Angeles for the 2011 NAACP National Convention. The Supervisor was joined today by L.A. NAACP Branch President, Leon Jenkins, and several other NAACP officials.
The L.A. Branch issued a media release echoing Mr. Ridley-Thomas’s concerns that “the problems within the Probation Dept. are too great to drop at the feet of a new manager alone.”
The Supervisor’s concerns stem from reports that problems at the Probation Dept. are spread far beyond the confines of its remote youth camps. County auditors and the department's own investigations found evidence of wrongdoing by managers and Probation officers throughout the department.
Emphasizing that the rehabilitation of African-American juveniles is a national problem, which directly affects African-Americans in every state, the NAACP’s resolution stated that an investigation by the Dept. of Justice could serve as a warning and model for further investigations into other juvenile detention and education centers nationwide.
“I am extremely grateful for the organization’s adoption of a resolution in support of my efforts to restore public confidence in the departments,” Mr. Ridley-Thomas said. “We have tried to repair the departments from within. We now know the results.”
