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December 17, 2024
(KTLA) The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday is expected to proclaim a local emergency over the troubled Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, which has been ordered closed by state regulators but is continuing to operate due to a lack of any alternate facility to hold the youth detained there.
The juvenile hall has been plagued with operational issues since it was hastily reopened last year to house detainees relocated from Central Juvenile Hall in Boyle Heights and Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar, which were both ordered closed by the state.
Since it reopened, Los Padrinos has suffered from short staffing, allegations of violence among detainees — sometimes while probation officers allegedly stood by without intervening — and escape attempts.
In October, the Board of State and Community Corrections, which oversees detention facilities, deemed Los Padrinos unsuitable to house youth, and gave the county a Dec. 12 deadline to correct staffing deficiencies or close the facility. According to various reports, a recent follow-up inspection by the BSCC found that the problems were persisting, and the closure deadline remained in place.
However, the county — with no other viable facility to house the roughly 250 youth who are detained at Los Padrinos — has continued to operate the facility.
During Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, board Chair Kathryn Barger and Supervisor Hilda Solis will ask their colleagues to support a motion proclaiming a local emergency over Los Padrinos. The motion acknowledges longstanding problems at the facility, but takes issue with the BSCC’s latest closure order and determination that the hall is not meeting staffing requirements. It also questions the BSCC’s decision-making process and the 90-day time period provided for closure, “no matter how complex or long-standing the problem.”
“The BSCC’s model unfortunately fails to recognize that many problems simply cannot be 100% solved in that 90-day time period — particularly when many of the underlying problems are personnel-related and must, by law, be resolved in compliance with civil service and collective bargaining rules that usually operate under timelines that vastly exceed 90 days,” according to the motion.
“… It bears repeating that the county respects the BSCC and its staff, and shares its goal of ensuring youth in Probation custody receive appropriate care. But regardless of the county’s disagreement with the merits of the BSCC’s findings and how it is structured, the fact remains that the BSCC appears to be demanding the closure of LPJH and appears poised to support legal action to shut it down. The county must act urgently to address the resulting grave safety and security perils to the youth and the public. The county has no other place to house these youth — particularly given that, among other things, BSCC itself has not approved any other county facilities to do so.”
