ARTICLE TAG

Kathryn Barger

4/11/2021

Los Angeles Moves Ahead with $35 Million Plan to Repurpose Juvenile Detention Camp

A shuttered juvenile detention camp in the far reaches of Los Angeles County’s Antelope Valley will become a live-in job training site for young adults who’ve been homeless, incarcerated or raised by the foster care system, under a $35 million plan approved last week by county supervisors.

7/28/2020

Los Angeles Weighs Ballot Proposal to Fund Alternatives to Incarceration

As communities across the U.S. grapple with how to divert money from law enforcement agencies to correct for long-standing racial injustice, Los Angeles County supervisors think the voters should decide. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted to advance a proposal headed for the November ballot that would direct as much as $800 million “to address the disproportionate impact of racial injustice through community investment and alternatives to incarceration.” 

11/11/2019

Big National Funders Back Plan to Help Antelope Valley After String of Child Welfare Deaths

Los Angeles County’s Antelope Valley — the remote area that has seen several of the county’s worst child welfare tragedies over the past six years — is at the center of a new philanthropic effort to prevent child maltreatment and help support vulnerable children and families.

10/20/2019

L.A. Police Failed to Investigate 4,000 Serious Child Abuse Reports in 2018 and 2019

The first recorded sign of trouble in the brief life of Noah Cuatro came before he was even born. In August 2014, when his mother was nine months pregnant with Noah, she allegedly threw her baby sister, fracturing the 10-month-old’s skull in two places.

9/23/2019

Controversy Over 4-Year-Old’s Death Intensifies at L.A. County Child Welfare Meeting

On Monday, the tension that has gripped Los Angeles County’s child welfare establishment since the mysterious July death of 4-year-old Noah Cuatro spilled out into public view. At a meeting of the county’s Commission for Children and Families, the chiefs of both the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and the Office of Child Protection (OCP) grew visibly and audibly frustrated with commissioners’ questions about the Cuatro case.

9/19/2019

‘Party’s Over’: Kathryn Barger Wants L.A.’s Child Protection System to Change Now

On Sept. 11, I visited the wood-paneled offices of Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger for a wide-ranging discussion about the state of child welfare in the county and her district.

    8/26/2019

    Key Details in 4-Year-Old’s Mysterious Death Should Emerge Soon

    On July 9, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva stepped to the lectern during a press conference focused on the suspicious death of 4-year-old Noah Cuatro. Four days earlier, on July 5, Noah’s parents called 911 claiming that their son had drowned in their high desert apartment complex pool.

    8/14/2019

    L.A. County Will Explore Possibility of Separating Youth from Probation

    On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors decided to move forward with exploring a new “care-first” direction for its juvenile justice system by moving it out of the county’s Probation Department and placing it under the aegis of a different county department.

    8/13/2019

    In Aftermath of Latest Child Death, L.A. Contends with Potential Foster Care Panic

    In mid-July, Bobby Cagle, the director of Los Angeles County’s $2.8-billion child welfare system, visited the high desert communities of Palmdale and Lancaster, both reeling from the latest child death to strike the county.