After 2 escapes, LA supervisors order report on security at Downey juvey hall

Following the second escape of a youth from Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey since the facility reopened in July, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday directed probation officials provide a report in two weeks on corrective actions and increased security measures being implemented at the facility.

“It is unacceptable that two young people have managed to escape from Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in the last four months,” Supervisors board Chair Janice Hahn said in a statement after introducing the emergency motion Tuesday. “Luckily, they were both apprehended almost immediately after their escape, but this cannot happen again.”

The motion calls for the report by probation officials in two weeks to include “descriptions of additional security measures and policies being implemented by the Probation Department to prevent any future escape from the facility.”

It also directs the county’s chief probation officer to meet with Downey and South Gate officials to brief them on additional security measures. It also calls on the Office of the Inspector General to investigate the most recent escape, which occurred Saturday when a youth detainee allegedly assaulted a staff member, managed to obtain a set of keys then climbed over a fence.

That youth was detained within about 10 minutes, according to Hahn’s office and probation officials.

Another youth escaped briefly from the facility about two weeks after it reopened in July.

Los Padrinos was renovated and reopened to replace Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar and Central Juvenile Hall in Lincoln Heights, both of which came under fire by state regulators for conditions that rendered them unfit to house pre-trial youth detainees.

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