Former LA judge retires as Diversion and Reentry chief

Peter P. Espinoza will retire in November as director of L.A. County's Office of Diversion and Reentry, the job he left the bench for five years ago.

The biggest challenge has been managing resources and trying to expand, Espinoza said in an interview Wednesday. But he believes the future is bright for the program. "I think that the board of supervisors are committed to the work that we do ... and are always on the lookout for ways to expand our work," he said.

His position hasn't been filled, but the program will be led in the interim by Christina Ghaly, director of health services for the county, and members of her team.

"I think more attention needs to be focused on how to collaborate within the justice system, and how to properly resource programs that have demonstrated their efficacy," he said about the justice system as a whole. The Office of Diversion and Reentry "plays a big role in criminal justice reform, but we're not the only answer," he said.

Espinoza oversees programs that offer criminal justice diversions to people with mental illness and substance abuse problems, and provides them with reentry support services.

During his 25 years on the bench he found, "About 30% of my caseload involved cases with people with a serious mental illness. Many times, I didn't have any options because there were no community-based care options, so when I was offered this position it made complete sense to me to take the expertise I had in criminal justice and try to use that at the intersection of mental health."

He said the office has made it possible to change judicial system recidivism on a broad scale. "We currently have 2,200 persons who were charged with serious felonies, who have a serious history of mental illness, in our care," Espinoza said. "They've been put on probation and we ... provide them with housing, we take care of all of their clinical needs, we have case-management services for them. Anything they need to be stable in a community and not return to jail, we provide."

Espinoza recalled the story of one young man whose life was changed by the program. "Before he turned 18, he became homeless and he spent three decades experiencing state prison and county jail," Espinoza explained. When he was offered diversion and reentry services, Espinoza said that the man didn't think it was real until program workers came to the jail to get him. He was with the program for three years, and is now "sober, stable and hasn't had any recidivist behavior," according to Espinoza.

After retirement, he said, "I have lots of other interests, many of them that revolve around social justice and criminal justice reform, but I also like to garden." He plans to stay active with the governor's Commission to Revise the Penal Code and spend time with his wife and grandchildren.