Los Angeles County has passed two critical inspections necessary to potentially avoid the closure of two troubled juvenile detention facilities and the relocation of hundreds of youth in the county’s custody.
Staff at the Board of State and Community Corrections, the regulatory body that oversees California’s prisons and juvenile halls, say the two county-run facilities, Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey and the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility in Sylmar, have come back into compliance with the state’s minimum standards after having repeatedly failed inspections over the past eight months.
The agency’s inspectors now are recommending the board vote at its meeting Thursday, April 11, to reverse an earlier decision that would, if left unchanged, force the closure of both facilities on April 16.
The board must make the final determination as to whether L.A. County has improved enough to avoid the shutdown.
State support likely
History suggests the BSCC is likely to support keeping the facilities open. The agency has forced the closure of only two juvenile halls in its 12-year history, but in those cases, which also involved Los Angeles County, state law provided less discretion.
In February, the BSCC declared Los Padrinos and Barry J. Nidorf “unsuitable” for the continued confinement of youth, largely due to persistent understaffing that left officers unable to get the youth in their custody to school on time and to the bathroom during night shifts. Such a designation requires the facility to close within 60 days unless it can clear up all of the identified deficiencies before the deadline.
That’s what the BSCC’s own inspectors now say has occurred.
Critics and advocates for juvenile justice reform are skeptical that L.A. County, after years of failing inspections for the same reasons, has suddenly made a turnaround. Some are even urging the county to take extreme measures and release all of the youth in their custody. A group of protesters interrupted the county Board of Supervisors’ meeting Tuesday with chants calling on board members to “free the youth today” until they recessed and closed the chambers to the public.
Persistent problems
Los Padrinos, which reopened in July, has been plagued by persistent problems, including two violent escape attempts. The SYTF, meanwhile, has struggled with a proliferation of drugs and suffered a series of overdoses, including a fatal one in May.
“The BSCC should not fall for it, but I worry that they will,” said Aditi Sherikar, senior policy associate for the Children’s Defense Fund California. “It is unbelievable to think that they’re actually in compliance beyond papering over it for a day or two.”
Last month, L.A. County probation officials defiantly announced they would not develop a contingency plan for the possibility that the halls would close down. The announcement set up a game of chicken, in which the BSCC must either back down, or face a potential nightmare situation in which hundreds of youth would have to be relocated from Los Padrinos and Barry J. Nidorf, without any facility ready to receive them.
“That is the exact gambit the L.A. is playing here,” Sherikar said. “I think they’re using their lack of a plan as a threat over the BSCC to make them abdicate their responsibilities.”
Probation officers redeployed
To improve staffing at the halls, L.A. County temporarily redeployed 250 officers from adult probation services to the juvenile halls through a wildly unpopular mandate that has probation officers up in arms. The department has long suffered from low morale and an excessive amount of call-outs and medical leaves.
The recent involuntary redeployments have already sparked a class-action lawsuit from officers who say they were discriminated against due to medical restrictions. An attorney in that suit requested a temporary restraining order to try to stop the redeployments, but it was denied by a Superior Court judge on April 5, according to court filings.
The redeployments stretch the department thin elsewhere to “come into momentary compliance to avoid a shutdown,” Sherikar said.
“If the BSCC finds them suitable this week, I guarantee they’ll be out of compliance 24 hours later,” she said.
If the facilities are deemed “suitable” at the meeting and then later found out of compliance again, it would essentially reset the clock, giving L.A. County at least five more months before another shutdown could occur.
Not in full compliance
Language used in a letter from the BSCC to L.A. County’s chief probation officer, Guillermo Viera Rosa, suggests the county is not, in fact, fully in compliance, though improvements were noted in every category.
For example, the BSCC previously dinged Los Padrinos for failing to maintain a state-required ratio of one probation officer for every 10 youth “consistently.” The more recent inspections, however, determined L.A. County is in compliance with staffing, though not all of the shifts are meeting the minimum ratios, according to the letter from Lisa Southwell, a field representative for the BSCC.
“There was confusion and conflicting information related to staffing during our recent inspection and we encourage Department leadership to ensure that facility management is aware of the Department approved minimum staffing numbers to ensure continued compliance,” Southwell wrote.
Inspectors also previously found that some staff members assigned to Los Padrinos and the SYTF had not received required training on uses of force. Though L.A. County stated the training would be completed in January, Southwell’s letter indicates the department is now “on track to being compliant” later this summer.
“Please inform BSCC staff and provide proof of practice when all staff have completed the full 16 hours of training by June 30, 2024,” she wrote.
Despite their support, the BSCC staff has requested permission to conduct “regular, targeted inspections” at both Los Padrinos and the SYTF at Barry J. Nidorf.
The L.A. County Probation Department did not respond to a request for comment.
