County declares emergency over juvenile hall, defies closure order

The Board of Supervisors declared a local emergency Tuesday to keep Los Angeles County’s one juvenile hall operating after state regulators ordered the facility to close.

The proclamation, introduced in a motion by Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Hilda Solis and passed with a 5-1 vote, instructs county attorneys and staff to do a series of actions necessary to keep Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey operating. Supervisors focused their call to action on increasing staffing, based on the notion that chronically insufficient numbers of probation officers during shifts are commonplace and the root of the troubled hall’s problems.

Supervisors heard hours of public comments calling the action racist and a failure to demand accountability prior to the proclamation, which initially called for county attorneys to take all actions necessary to prevent detained youth from being released from the facility due to the state’s closure order. The board amended it to instruct the Probation Department to explore alternative options for housing Los Padrinos detainees accused of nonviolent offenses, such as release to community-based step-down facilities or to their homes with appropriate monitoring.

Barger said the emergency declaration was a “drastic” response to a dire situation — the state ordered the Los Padrinos closure when the county has no alternative location to transfer the approximately 240 youth detained there.

Los Padrinos has been plagued with management and operational issues since it reopened last year to house youth from Central Juvenile Hall in Boyle Heights and Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar, both of which the state ordered the county to close.

State regulators have identified issues at Los Padrinos that include short-staffing, attempted escapes and allegations of violence among youths detained at the facility, sometimes witnessed by probation officers who allegedly did not intervene. In October, the Board of State and Community Corrections, which oversees detention facilities, determined Los Padrinos was unsuitable to house youth and set a Dec. 12 deadline for the LA County Probation Department to correct staffing deficiencies or close the facility.

In October, the Board of State and Community Corrections, which oversees detention facilities in California, deemed Los Padrinos unsuitable to house youth, and gave the county until Dec. 12 to correct staffing deficiencies or close the facility. The BSCC’s follow-up inspection found that the problems were persisting, and the closure deadline remained in place.

County officials said there was no alternative but to keep the facility operating in defiance of the closure order.

The county’s proclamation acknowledged longstanding shortfalls at the facility, but took issue with the BSCC’s Los Padrinos shutdown order and finding that the facility is often not adequately staffed. Supervisors also were at odds with the BSCC’s decision-making process and the nearly three-month period to correct deficiencies or face closure, regardless of the complexity or persistent nature of a facility’s problems.

“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.”

The motion revealed that defense attorneys have started legal actions seeking the release of youth being held at Los Padrinos, contending the facility is operating illegally. Also, “a very high percentage of the youth in LPJH have a history of serious, violent offenses — such as murder, attempted murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery and carjacking,” and other detainees have “serious mental health issues,” according to the motion. “If LPJH is closed, there is nowhere for them to go, except back into the community.” 

Hours of public comments featured many advocates, activists and former detainees who criticized the emergency declaration as racist and replete with language that demonized youth without acknowledging the Probation Department or county’s responsibility for the years of deficiencies in the juvenile detention system.

Probation officers “don’t show up to work and keep their jobs? What kind of leadership is that?” one speaker asked. Other public hearing participants slammed the tenor of the motion for painting youth detainees as “murders, robbers and rapists” and failing to “hold probation accountable and explore real alternatives.” Many speakers called on the county to shut the facility down and release the youth to their families.

Supervisor Lindsey Horvath voted against the motion, which she said “doesn’t unlock authority” the probation department does not already have. Horvath added that the emergency proclamation reinforces a scenario that subjects youth to unsafe conditions while not requiring accountability measures by the Probation Department for the agency’s historic failures in managing Los Padrinos and other juvenile halls.

To try to better ensure full staffing, the proclamation calls for the Department of Human Resources and other relevant agencies to hasten the recruitment and hiring of probation officers to fill vacancies at the facility, to offer incentives up to $24,000 for lateral transfers and to consider hiring any qualified peace officer in the state, such as reserve officers and 120-day retirees.

“While we have many solutions that are working, the scale and speed at which these solutions are being implemented need to be expanded and expedited, respectively,” according to the motion. “Proclaiming a local emergency to address this critical crisis will provide the county with additional tools to accelerate and expand its response in collaboration with our state partners and others.”

In a statement Tuesday, LA County Probation Department Chief Guillermo Viera-Rosa said the proclamation’s “drastic and decisive measures are needed to root deep-seated issues plaguing our only secured youth facility.”

“We also strongly support the Board of Supervisors’ directive to pursue legal strategies to prevent the premature release of youth and to ensure public safety is upheld,” Viera-Rosa said. “At the same time, we remain committed to providing care and services to youth, recognizing that they deserve a secure, supportive, and rehabilitative environment.”

The county Probation Department is appealing the BSCC’s closure order. 

The BSCC’s meeting scheduled for Wednesday originally included a discussion of Los Padrinos, but that was removed from the agenda because of the recently failed inspection. 

The L.A. County Deputy Probation Officers’ Union, AFSCME Local 685, has blamed the county for inadequate staffing. In an October statement that followed the unsuitability ruling, the union said “chronic understaffing and untenable working conditions” have “put an immense burden” on Los Padrinos officers.

“Our members are dedicated professionals who have built careers in juvenile rehabilitation and public safety field supervision, and we understand the stakes,” the union’s executive board said in a statement following the county supervisors’ proclamation. “This is about ensuring the safety of youth and officers in Probation facilities, providing critical field supervision to protect our communities, and delivering on our mission to support rehabilitation while safeguarding the workforce that makes it possible. We must work together to keep Los Padrinos open.”

Several supervisors blamed persistent understaffing as the primary issue affecting Los Padrinos and said the facility’s woes have been intensified by the number of officers who fail to show up for work.

Viera-Rosa told the board the staffing shortfalls are improving, but maintaining adequately staffed work shifts is still a challenge. He said that while the Probation Department has been rotating nondetention staff into Los Padrinos to complete shift staffing, the issue of officers who “call out” and fail to report to work remains a problem. Some shifts have as many as 18% of officers who don’t report for duty, and an overall average of about 14% who fail to show up, Viera-Rosa said.

“The reasons for them not showing up are vast, and legitimate in some cases, such as not feeling safe,” he added.

Dozens of probation officers have been suspended this year, including some accused of remaining idle and watching during violent clashes involving youths at Los Padrinos.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, the Board of Supervisors approved a proposed $30 million settlement of a 2022 federal class-action lawsuit alleging the county failed to ensure safe and habitable conditions for more than 7,000 detainees at county juvenile facilities since 2014. 

The lawsuit alleged youth detainees did not have access to warm bedding and clothing, restrooms, toiletries, private showers and sanitary food. The suit also claimed youths were not provided required access to exercise, recreation or religious services, and officers allegedly used shackles and pepper spray excessively in the facilities, two of which are shut down.

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