By Maya Lau, Los Angeles Times, June 25, 2019.
When Los Angeles County leaders voted unanimously in February to ban the use of pepper spray in its juvenile detention facilities, officials were tasked with phasing out the chemical agent by the end of the year.
But on Tuesday, the head of the county’s Probation Department — which runs juvenile detention facilities — told the Board of Supervisors that her agency will need more time.
Chief Probation Officer Terri McDonald projected that it will take until the end of September 2020 to eliminate oleoresin capsicum, also known as OC or pepper spray.
Under her plan, the department will conduct training and will begin to allow only two staff members per shift to carry the chemical agent. After a few months, the pepper spray canisters will be kept in a locked box, to be used only in extreme emergencies, followed by another step to eliminate its use altogether.
McDonald said she’s committed to making her department a more therapeutic place for youths to rehabilitate, but the transformation will require more training and staff in order to meet the demands made by supervisors.
“What’s been proposed is a paradigm shift from detention and control to treatment in a trauma-informed setting,” she said. “The truth of the matter is, we’re not going to be able to provide the kind of services and support to do the kind of programming we need to do” without more experienced staff.
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