After Turpin report, Riverside County supervisors promise reforms in social services

Riverside County officials will begin finding ways to carry out the reforms recommended by an outside investigator who found major problems in the county's care for at-risk youth and adults, including in the high-profile Turpin case.

Riverside County supervisors unanimously voted to take those steps during their meeting Tuesday. The meeting was the first time supervisors and other county officials commented in detail on the report released last week, which found the social services system failed the Turpin children “all too often.”

The investigation was conducted by former federal judge Stephen Larson, who was hired by the county in late 2021, after an ABC expose in which Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin and other employees accused the county's public guardian of failing to provide the Turpin siblings with adequate food and shelter.

The 13 Turpin siblings were freed from decades of confinement, abuse and malnourishment by their parents — who were later sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole — in 2018, when one of the adult children escaped their Perris home and called the police.

The county then provided foster care and resources to the siblings, but that response came under scrutiny, with three of the siblings telling Diane Sawyer on the television special that the care had not been adequate.

More: Report: Riverside County care system failed the Turpin siblings 'all too often'

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Larson, whose team’s report incorporated interviews with more than 100 sources — including two Turpin siblings — and review of roughly 30,000 pages of documents, told the board that the county provided “an extensive suite” of services and support systems to address the siblings’ situations.

“However, we also found that the Turpin siblings experienced further harm by a system that was meant to protect them,” Larson said. “Specifically, some of the younger Turpin siblings were placed with caregivers who were later charged with child abuse. Some of the older siblings experienced periods of housing instability and food insecurity as they transitioned to independence.”

However, Larson also pointed to some positive news included in the report, noting there is “absolutely no evidence” that any of the more than $1 million in donations to the Turpin siblings was misused by the county.

And some issues identified in the report have started to trend “in the right direction,” Larson said, with the county opening a special support unit for child case workers and supervisors recently starting to examine ways to reduce the county’s high turnover rates across many departments.

“It's not on a downward trend. It's actually, from our assessment, very much on an upward trend,” Larson said. “For it to continue, I think we need the recommendations that we've set forth (in the report) to be implemented.”

Larson and the supervisors also briefly discussed the parts of the report that were redacted before public release due to court-issued protective orders. They include an entire 46-page section on the children’s experiences in the welfare system.

Given the court’s orders, Larson was unable to comment specifically on those sections, though he acknowledged the redactions as “undoubtedly frustrating.”

“Importantly, however, every county supervisor here today, the county executive officer, and each and every member of the board of supervisors’ ad hoc committee possess an unredacted version of the report,” Larson said.

That ad hoc committee was set up by supervisors Kevin Jeffries and Karen Spiegel to oversee the probe and promised an independent accounting of the county's ability to care for dependents, with special attention to the Turpin siblings. Supervisors voted Tuesday to make the committee responsible for overseeing the implementation of those recommendations.

Originally slated to be completed in late March, the investigation was delayed, in part by confidentiality of court cases involving juveniles and dependent adults. Riverside County has so far paid Larson approximately $868,000 to conduct the independent investigation, according to county spokesperson Brooke Federico.

During a public comment period, resident Rory Connell called the report “a shining example of how a total lack of leadership can highlight how broken our social services system is.”

“I ask of the public… Where is your outrage?” Connell said. “I’ve seen you stand on street corners about masks and guns and vaccines, but who is speaking for the children who don’t have a voice, the ones lost in the system?”

Another commenter, Jacki McCray, asked: “How many more children will be hurt or killed? How many more millions of dollars will Riverside County taxpayers have to pay for investigations, reports and lawsuit?” McCray asked the board.

Money still unspent

While many details of the care provided to the Turpin siblings are redacted, the publicly released report says thousands of dollars in donations for the family were improperly handled by the public guardian's office, which manages the affairs of 1,200 to 1,300 vulnerable adults, including those experiencing neglect and financial exploitation.

The investigators found “there remains a significant amount of money that was donated for the benefit of the Turpin siblings, but which the Office of Public Guardian has not marshaled and distributed.”

That includes over $209,000 donated to the Corona Chamber of Commerce and now managed by SAFE Family Justice Center, plus about $1 million held by the JAYC Foundation.

Investigators said they couldn't determine why the public guardian only recently sought to get that money and use it for the Turpins' benefit. But according to the report, the Turpins' court-appointed attorney said in a court filing that the public guardian “previously claimed that it did not have the duty or ability to marshal these funds.”

“Regardless of the reasoning, the Office of Public Guardian’s failure to marshal these funds has resulted in the lack of Court oversight for the SAFE Family Justice and JAYC Foundation funds, and may have resulted in food and housing insecurity for at least some of the Turpin siblings, in direct contravention of the donors’ wishes,” the report concludes.

Siblings 'caught in the middle'

The report also details “heated conflicts” between the county district attorney’s office, the attorneys appointed to represent the Turpin siblings and county counsel, “leaving the siblings caught in the middle.”

The entities’ disagreements began in 2018 when the district attorney’s office attempted to interview the Turpin siblings for the criminal case against their parents, the report says. The siblings' appointed counsel wanted them to have an immunity agreement before speaking.

“Over the next two months, the lawyers sparred back and forth, issuing threats of litigation and cease and desist letters regarding interaction with the siblings,” the report says. “Finally in June of 2018, the District Attorney requested that the firm be removed as counsel for the siblings, claiming it was working to sabotage the District Attorney’s relationship with them.”

The disagreements between the various attorneys “were conducted in such a way that the siblings were confused and unsettled,” the report states.

“… the siblings were caught in the midst of this legal turf war, and were trying their hardest to understand the issues and do the right thing. Clearly, it detracted from a constructive focus on protecting them from harm while enhancing their independence,” the report states.

Vacant jobs, huge caseloads

Beyond its focus on the care provided to the Turpin siblings, the report also found broader issues with the county’s social care system, particularly the Department of Public Social Services and the Office of Public Guardian.

“High caseloads stand in the way of consistently providing high-quality services and ensuring the safety and care for our most vulnerable populations,” the report states. “Many services and programs are underfunded and stretched far too thin.”

The report specifically mentions the Children's Services Division within DPSS, where high staff turnover and vacancy rates “have reached a crisis point and are adversely impacting staff and service delivery.” The division's average caseloads are more than twice California’s minimum standards for child social workers, the investigation found.

On Tuesday, Larson also noted the division’s vacancy rate stood at 40% earlier this year, commenting: “I don't know how any institution could run with that kind of vacancy rate.”

Jeffries, who acknowledged the report was “painful to read” at times, said issues such as high vacancy rates and low pay are “the meat and potatoes of making things turn around.”

“We can bolster the funding,” Jeffries said. “We can move resources where we need to, as long as we stay engaged, our ad hoc committee stays engaged and the future subcommittee that's going to deal with the everyday details, to make sure department heads continue to move the ball forward.”

Riverside County's ability to care for vulnerable children suffering abuse and dependents in the county's custody has been under scrutiny for years. The Department of Public Social Services saw a revolving door of leadership changes after several cases of severe child abuse and one alleged murder were reported by media outlets.

The Turpin report includes several recommendations for county officials to improve the department's standing, including offering higher salaries to ensure parity with surrounding counties, as well as setting caseload limits based on California’s legislative standards.

The ad hoc committee created by Jeffries and Spiegel will oversee the implementation of the report’s recommendations. However, the report indicates the county’s five supervisors and front-line staff “cannot absorb additional work under current conditions where attrition, vacancies, and workloads have reached unacceptable highs.”

“For these reasons, we recommend that the County create new leadership and project management positions charged with system integration and reform efforts,” the report states. “Unyielding commitment and financial backing from the Board of Supervisors is imperative for this systems-level change.”

By a 4-0 vote, the county supervisors directed county staff to soon return to the board with a report on the efforts to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and adults, along with a plan to implement new recommendations. Fourth District Supervisor V. Manuel Perez, who represents the Coachella Valley, was absent from the meeting. A spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on his absence.

Tom Coulter covers politics and can be reached at thomas.coulter@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: After Turpin report, Riverside County supervisors promise reforms