This morning’s Los Angeles Times featured an editorial underlining the importance of a recent report, released by RDA, that provides a thorough examination of the Los Angeles County Probation Department. The report, LA Probation Governance Study, which came before the County Board of Supervisors today, is the end result of RDA’s review and evaluation of the Probation Department’s organizational structure and the logistics of changing that structure. It includes recommendations that we believe will have the greatest impact on transforming the Department into a high functioning, 21st Century agency that will become a model jurisdiction for other probation agencies across the country.

In today’s paper, the Times Editorial Board urges the supervisors to act on the recommendations provided in the report in order to implement new policies and practices that will achieve systemic improvement in probation:

“[The supervisors] have made significant changes in the way the county delivers services to people in crisis, including medical care, mental health treatment and housing, but systemic changes in probation have so far eluded them. That leaves a giant hole in what should be a comprehensive system of programs to lift people out of poverty and poor health and away from criminality and illness, and toward successful employment and participation in society. The 500-plus pages by the consulting firm Resource Development Associates could, if read closely, help the Probation Department reinvent itself.”

You can find the report here.