Orange County Probation Department

Budget cuts have left the county's Probation Department with fewer officers to keep tabs on an ever growing number of adults and juveniles sentenced to probation and have forced them to prematurely halt supervision of hundreds of criminals living in the county. Some judges and others are concerned about the rising probation caseloads, fearing that officers will have less time to work with first-time offenders and juveniles, who benefit most from close supervision.

As the Orange County Probation Department began to lay off dozens of workers this week to deal with a projected $8.2-million budget shortfall, its officials are pointing affected employees toward Los Angeles County, where the probation department is looking for new applicants. On Tuesday and Wednesday, 100 employees in the department received notices that they might be laid off, although only 58 positions will be eliminated, said Colleene Preciado, the county's chief probation officer.

A judge is expected to authorize a drug-counseling program for Todd Marinovich during a hearing April 10 at Orange County Harbor Municipal Court in Newport Beach, said Gary Pohlson, Marinovich's lawyer. Marinovich, a former USC quarterback who was charged with possession of cocaine, applied for diversion. Pohlson said Marinovich, 21, will schedule an interview with officers of the Orange County Probation Department this week. The probation department will recommend a program.

Girls in trouble with the law in Orange County are being taught how to act, dress and even salsa as part of an ambitious project to boost their self-esteem and provide them with the basic social skills and support they will need to lead productive lives.

A free workshop series at Imperial Middle School will continue Tuesday with a discussion on rave parties. Panelists will include members of the Police Department. Discussion will focus on gang trends, safety and alternative activities for children. Panelists will include officials from the Orange County Probation Department. The meeting will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the school, 1450 Schoolwood Drive. Information: (714) 879-4281.

The Santa Ana Unified School District and the Orange County Probation Department have joined forces in an attempt to keep the district's vacant land clean. The district owns 84 acres of land on which new schools will eventually be built. In the meantime, the land serves as a temporary home for homeless people and a dumping ground for trash and debris.

The Orange County Probation Department is applying for a $30,000 federal grant that it would use to develop a "boot camp" program for juvenile offenders. The U.S. Department of Justice grant would help pay for consultant services to determine if the county's juvenile population would warrant such a program.

Plans to revive a halfway house program for low-risk jail inmates on work furlough have alarmed residents of the neighborhood where it is planned. If the Board of Supervisors signs off on the proposal, a 13-unit apartment building on a sliver of unincorporated county land between Fountain Valley and the Santa Ana River will be converted to a halfway house for 50 work furlough inmates.

Hunting for dope is all a game for Jet, a four-year veteran of the Orange County Probation Department. The 7-year-old German shepherd, one of two dogs owned by the department, eagerly sniffs closets and cabinets. Jet will be showcased next week when more than 700 parole and probation officers meet in Garden Grove for the American Probation and Parole Assn.'s winter training conference. The biannual conference gives probation and parole officers the opportunity to exchange ideas.

Drug offenders soon may be sweating out the results of their drug tests--literally. A new skin patch, recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, detects the use of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and PCP through sweat. Worn for up to 14 days, it is then sent to a lab for testing. Orange County's Probation Department plans to begin using the "sweat patch" on a limited basis within a few weeks, said department spokesman Rod Speer.

Hunting for dope is all a game for Jet, a four-year veteran of the Orange County Probation Department. The 7-year-old German shepherd, one of two dogs owned by the department, eagerly sniffs closets and cabinets. Jet will be showcased next week when more than 700 parole and probation officers meet in Garden Grove for the American Probation and Parole Assn.'s winter training conference. The biannual conference gives probation and parole officers the opportunity to exchange ideas.

Late changes to the state budget spared the Orange County Probation Department from laying off 150 workers and closing two juvenile camps, the county's top probation officer said Tuesday. Had state lawmakers followed through with plans to cut $12.5 million in department funding, department officials were prepared to shut down the Los Pinos camp in the Cleveland National Forest and the Joplin Youth Center in Trabuco Canyon, said Chief Probation Officer Stephanie Lewis.

One was an Orange County probation counselor charged with misleading the FBI during an investigation of corruption in Santa Ana City Hall, where he sat on the City Council. Another was a probation officer accused of printing confidential criminal records and giving them to his wife, an attorney, to use to prepare a case.

In a letter to the Orange County court that sentenced him Friday, Jeffrey Minor pledged his devotion to a life of sobriety. He said he was sorry for dragging a Newport Beach police officer with his Porsche while trying to escape a 1998 drunk driving arrest. He said he was "sickened and embarrassed" by his actions, which came five years after he killed a man while driving drunk in Riverside County.

After a two-year delay, a new 90-bed detention facility for boys and girls in Orange County's rural Trabuco Canyon won approval Tuesday from the Board of Supervisors, though some residents said they may sue to block it. The board voted unanimously for the county Probation Department's $17-million expansion of Joplin Youth Center, saying the need for more juvenile beds outweighs residents' objections that the project is poorly planned, would damage the environment and is too costly.

After a two-year delay, a new 90-bed detention facility for boys and girls in Orange County's rural Trabuco Canyon won approval Tuesday from the Board of Supervisors, though some residents said they will sue to block it. The board voted unanimously for the county Probation Department's $17-million expansion at Joplin Youth Center, saying the need for more juvenile beds outweighs residents' objections that the project is poorly planned, will damage the environment and is too costly.

Susan Tamulevich is about to receive help mentoring youths at the Orange County Probation Department's Youth Guidance Center from 10,000 creepy, squirming friends. Tamulevich, founder of the Guiding Angels outreach organization, has arranged for a donation of 10,000 worms and composting material to teach the youths about gardening. Friday, the youths had an introduction to composting, setting up an 8-foot-long compost box and examining handfuls of worms.

Some of Orange County's most dangerous juveniles, along with adults convicted in other California courts, will be among those in the new city jail under agreements approved Monday by the City Council. One agreement calls for the Orange County Probation Department to rent 64 cells in the new city jail for juveniles being tried as adults. Police Chief Paul M. Walters said the juveniles have been accused of "very serious" crimes such as murder, assault and kidnapping.

Stephanie W. Lewis, the county's acting chief probation officer, was selected Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors to lead the 1,600-employee agency permanently. Lewis, 53, is a 32-year Probation Department veteran and has served in various administrative positions, including Juvenile Hall director and head of adult and juvenile field supervision officers. While in that position, she developed the agency's gang violence suppression program.

A controversial proposal for a youth camp at the remote eastern edge of the county has been put on hold, raising questions about the viability of a project that local residents say would irreparably disturb their bucolic community. The Orange County Probation Department on Wednesday asked the county Planning Commission to delay certification of the project's environmental impact report.