Supervisors want review of ways to depopulate Los Padrinos

Los Angeles County is moving to depopulate Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey. (Downey Patriot photo)

DOWNEY — The county Board of Supervisors is instructing the chief probation officer Wednesday to review a range of other options for moving youth detainees out of the troubled Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, including considering some youth for release and expediting the transfer of those who have already been sentenced to other facilities.

In April, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Espinoza directed the county Probation Department to submit a plan to depopulating Los Padrinos, which has been operating for months despite state regulators ruling it unsuitable to house youth detainees.

In accordance with that order, the Probation Department on Friday submitted its proposal to the court, outlining plans to begin transferring youth out of the facility to other locations.

But Supervisors Janice Hahn and Lindsey Horvath introduced a motion calling on the agency to consider a series of other recommendations developed by the county's Probation Oversight Commission. Hahn noted that the Probation Department plan would reduce the population of detainees at Los Padrinos from 278 to 175, but she said she wants that number to fall to 100.

"The Probation Department is going to need to move youth from Los Padrinos to other Probation facilities, but that shouldn't be the only strategy we rely on," Hahn said in a statement. "Our Probation Oversight Commission has put forward thoughtful recommendations to reduce the number of young people coming into our custody and work with the courts to identify youth who can and should be safely released with supportive programs or ankle monitors. Our Probation Department needs to consider all these strategies and if there are any they won't pursue, they need to be transparent about why."

In addition to considering some youth for possible monitored release, the commission's recommendations also included proposals to overhaul the youth intake process to slow the influx of detainees to Los Padrinos, and to move lower-risk boys awaiting sentencing to probation camps. Other recommendations included moving girls and "gender-expansive" youth awaiting sentencing to the Dorothy Kirby Center in Commerce, and speeding the transfer of youth who have already been sentenced to their court-ordered placements.

"In the absence of a clear, transparent, and community-informed plan from our struggling Probation Department, we must rely on the leadership of the Probation Oversight Commission and the meaningful solutions they've developed in collaboration with county stakeholders and the public," Horvath said in a statement. "None of the options before us are perfect, but doing nothing -- or simply moving forward with Probation's inadequate proposal -- is unacceptable. I fear we will replicate the same failures in new locations at a time when our youth are counting on us to provide the care and rehabilitation they deserve."

In December, the Board of State and Community Corrections declared Los Padrinos unsuitable to house youth detainees, citing various issues -- most notably staffing deficiencies. But the county, lacking any viable alternative to house the detainees, has continued to operate the facility despite the state order.

The Probation Department has repeatedly appealed to the BSCC to lift the ruling of unsuitability at Los Padrinos, insisting that improvements have been made. But state regulators have refused to budge.

The juvenile hall has been plagued with management and operational issues since it was hastily reopened in 2023 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.

But Los Padrinos has suffered from persistent short-staffing, allegations of violence among detainees -- sometimes while probation officers allegedly stood by without intervening -- and escape attempts.

The facility's latest black eye came in March, when 30 county probation officers were hit with criminal charges stemming from an investigation that uncovered alleged cases of "youth-on-youth violence" at the facility. Prosecutors said probation officers would arrange "gladiator fights" among the detainees. According to state Attorney General Rob Bonta, 69 fights were allowed to occur between youths housed at the facility between July and December in 2023.