A Message From President Eddie Chism

To Every Field Officer Deployed to LP and BJN: We Hear You, We Stand With You, and We Are Fighting to Get You Back to the Field

Brothers and Sisters,

Let me begin with this, clearly and directly:

Our Field Officers – especially our DPO IIs – have every right to be frustrated, angry, and exhausted.

You didn’t sign up to be deployed into crisis-driven juvenile halls. You didn’t sign up to carry the consequences of years of staffing failures and operational mismanagement. You signed up to serve in the field, and that is where you belong.

Your union knows it.

I know it.

And we are fighting every day to get you back to the field where you are needed most.

What You Need to Know: We Are Working Aggressively to End Field Deployments

The message I delivered to the department today was grounded in your frustration. It was the first thing I raised because it is the first thing on your minds.

The continued deployment of Field Officers to LP and BJN is unsustainable and unacceptable.

This is hitting our caseloads, our communities, our safety, and our morale.

And we made it crystal clear that the solution is not to keep draining the field workforce. The solution is to hire, to promote, and to put the right people in the right roles.

RTSB DPO Is Are Better Qualified for Juvenile Hall Assignments  –  and We Said So

And I told the department exactly what many of you have been saying for months:

There are DPO Is in RTSB with the training, the background, and the hands-on juvenile expertise to be effective with the youth housed at LP and BJN SYTF. These officers know the juvenile population, understand the structure and the interventions, and are better equipped for the demands inside the halls.

Deploying DPO IIs from the field – who are needed to manage community caseloads – is the wrong approach and it is stretching the system to a breaking point.

We pushed this point hard today, and it landed.

We will continue pushing it until the deployment model changes.

Our Strategy: Hiring, Promotions, and Compensation Enhancements

Your union is attacking this issue on multiple fronts to end the reliance on field deployments:

1. Expedited Hiring

We are forcing the department to move faster, and we are seeing results:

• 77 DSOs/GSNs have been promoted to DPO I since January 25

• 43 more are currently in process

  • 13 have already cleared and are awaiting final offers

  • 29 remain in abeyance

• A new promulgation list is coming out this week, expected to include additional candidates previously held up or those who reapplied

Every newly hired or promoted DPO I reduces the need to deploy DPO IIs from the field.

2. Expedited Promotions

We are insisting that bottlenecks be eliminated. Delays in clearing candidates have dragged this crisis out, and we are forcing the department to correct it.

3. Compensation Enhancements

We are actively exploring compensation enhancements for juvenile hall assignments that would:

• Incentivize appropriate staff to volunteer or transfer

• Reduce involuntary deployments

• Stabilize staffing inside the halls

• Restore the field workforce to full strength

This work is underway now, and it is a top priority.

Today’s Meeting Produces Results on Safety and Oversight

Our Executive Board met today with Chief Viera Rosa, Chief Deputy Sheila Williams, Chief Deputy Robert Arcos, HR Director Deanna Carlisle, and Employee Relations Director Shanda Williams – supported by our Chief Negotiator Don Washington.

I did not walk into that meeting quietly.

I walked in with your anger and your exhaustion in mind.

And while the meeting was productive, we kept the focus where it belongs: the safety of our members and the end of field deployments.

We secured further commitments on the following security enhancements, including restricted access, improved screening, K-9 units, body scanners, drone detection, and embedding IISU at LP and BJN for criminal investigations.

Security Enhancements

1.     Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall – J-Post Gate Access

• Location: Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall

• Effective Date: July 2025

• Access limited to emergency purposes only

2.     Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall – Food Delivery Services

• Location: Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall

• Effective Date: July 2025

• Food delivery services suspended

3.     Juvenile Facilities– Personal Item Screening

• Location: All juvenile facilities

• Effective Date: July 2025

• All personal items entering the facility are to be placed in a screening bin for enhanced screening

4.     Enhanced Screening with Narcotics and Firearms K-9s

• Location: All juvenile facilities

• Effective Date: July 2025

• Applies to all people entering juvenile facilities

5.     Additional Security Coverage

• Location: Dorothy Kirby Center; Campus Vernon Kilpatrick

• Effective Date: July 2025

• Added additional security coverage

6.     STVS Entrance Body Scanner

• Location: Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall; Barry J. Nidorff

• Effective Date: August 2025

• Applies to all people entering these facilities

7.     Memo on Prohibited Clear Bag Requirements and Items

• Location: All juvenile facilities

• Effective Date: August 2025

• Prohibited items include glass and metal; Applies to all people entering facilities

8.     Camp Afflerbaugh – Safety/Security Specialist

• Location: Camp Afflerbaugh

• Effective Date: August 2025

• Added to monitor sally port gate

9.     Drone and Pilot Detection System

• Location: Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall; Barry J. Nidorff; Dorothy Kirby Center; Campus Kilpatrick

• Effective Date: September 2025

• Applies to all people entering these facilities

10.  Inventory Process for Keys (In Progress)

• Location: All juvenile probation sites

• Establishing a check-in/out process; Applies to all staff accessing facilities

11.  Lanyards for Identification (In Progress)

• Location: All juvenile sites

• Procured to identify people entering facilities

12.  East Camps Entrance Screening (Planned)

• Location: Camp Joseph R. Rockey; Camp Paig

• Expected: December 2025 / January 2026

• Applies to all people entering these camps

13.  Electronic Device Exemption Application (Updated / Ongoing)

• Location: All juvenile facilities

• Exemption Coordinator tracks approvals/denials; Applies to all people entering facilities

These enhancements matter – but they are not enough until our Field Officers are safely back in the field.

We Are Not Backing Down

I know what you’re going through.

I know how hard this is.

And I know what needs to be done.

We will keep pushing every day to:

• Get DPO IIs returned to their field assignments

• Staff the juvenile halls with qualified RTSB DPO Is

• Accelerate hiring pipelines

• Speed up promotions

• Improve compensation to stabilize staffing

• Hold the department accountable for every commitment made

This is not a one-meeting issue. This is a sustained fight – and your union is fully engaged.

I Stand With You, and I Won’t Let Up

To every DPO II who has been deployed: your frustration is justified, and it is driving this union’s actions at every level.

You deserve safety, respect, and the ability to do the job you were hired to do.

We are fighting to make that happen – and we will not stop until you are back in the field where you belong.

In solidarity,

Eddie Chism

President, AFSCME Local 685