Hoping to avoid closure of Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, LA County adds another layer of bureaucracy

A week after learning that Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall must close, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has voted to hire a “compliance officer” to independently ensure the Probation Department is properly following state laws and court-ordered mandates from the California Department of Justice.

The motion by Supervisors Janice Hahn and Lindsey Horvath describes the position as a supporting role, similar to ones created to oversee the Sheriff’s Department’s compliance with federal consent decrees involving the county’s jails. The new compliance officer, expected to be hired within 30 days, would answer directly to the county’s chief executive officer, rather than to the chief probation officer, according to the board’s motion.

“We need to do everything we can to ensure that our Probation Department comes into compliance with state standards at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall,” Hahn said in a statement. “We are on the clock now and it is necessary to have a dedicated compliance officer from outside the department who can oversee their work and has the ability to convene multiple departments who can help.”

The Board of State and Community Corrections, the regulatory body overseeing California’s jails and juvenile halls, declared Los Padrinos “unsuitable” for the confinement of youth on Oct. 14 and ordered the county to come back into compliance, or to empty the facility, by Dec. 12.

It’s the second time in a year that Los Padrinos has been declared unsuitable due to a persistent staffing shortage. The Probation Department narrowly managed to avoid closure in April by redeploying more than 100 officers from the field to stabilize the juvenile hall. That proved to be short lived and, by July, dozens of officers failed to show up daily and nearly 20% of the shifts at Los Padrinos were unable to meet staffing minimums.

Corrective plan late

This time, the department failed to request technical assistance from the BSCC prior to submitting a corrective action plan, which details how it would address the staffing crisis, according to Hahn and Horvath. The plan was turned in at the last minute. The BSCC rejected it the same day because it did not “adequately outline how the Department plans to correct” the issues, nor did it provide “reasonable timeframes for resolution of the staffing defiencies.”

Probation Department officials tried to submit a revised version two days later, but it was rejected outright because the deadline had passed.

The department, in an Oct. 15 statement expressing its disappointment, stated it has increased staffing levels at Los Padrinos by “actively recruiting new personnel, conducting training academies, reallocating officers from field assignments and utilizing overtime.”

“We are committed to transforming our juvenile institution into a safe and nurturing environment for the youth entrusted in our care while we endeavor to demonstrate unequivocally to the BSCC that we are meeting all statutory requirements,” the statement reads.

Under the new structure, the Probation Department would be required to submit “all current and future corrective action plan drafts and any related documents” to the compliance officer no later than 20 days before the due date. The new watchdog also would have the authority to coordinate with other departments to ensure probation is receiving all the help it can get.

“Appointing a compliance officer to support the Probation Department will align all County departments in the important work of getting and keeping facilities in compliance with state standards,” Horvath said. “With the many issues the department faces, this additional support will help ensure plans result in action at all levels of the County. Accountability is critical, especially when the well being of our young people is at stake. This is a critical step necessary for lasting change.”

Critics skeptical

Critics, however, are skeptical of the new layer of bureaucracy. The Probation Department already is monitored by the Probation Oversight Commission, the county Office of Inspector General, the BSCC and the state Department of Justice. The issues in the department are well-documented at this point, said Aditi Sherikar, a senior policy associate with the Children’s Defense Fund California.

“The facilities have been in and out of compliance for two years now,” she said. “All this does is give them another scapegoat that is not Probation for the issues that will inevitably come up.”

It is unlikely a compliance officer could be selected, brought on board and make any meaningful difference before the Dec. 12 deadline, she said.

The supervisors should order Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa to explain publicly how he plans to address staffing in such a short time and what he will do if Los Padrinos is closed, she said. There are parents who do not know what is going to happen to their children after the December deadline, she added.

Earlier this year, the Probation Department announced it had no plan for possibility of a closure in April, even as the possibility loomed. If Los Padrinos does close, youth inside the facility would likely need to be transferred to other counties, but such arrangements would take time.

“If they don’t come up with a plan, it is the young people who will suffer, as they always do,” Sherikar said.

Root cause of problems persist

Probation Oversight Commission Chair Eduardo Mundo isn’t convinced another set of eyes will make any difference either. The POC has flagged areas of noncompliance to the department in the past, but those same problems remained unfixed when the BSCC showed up to inspect weeks or months later. The commission also has offered to review corrective action plans in advance, much in the same way that a compliance officer would, but probation officials haven’t accepted.

Regardless, no amount of eyes on the problem will matter until the department can stabilize its staffing, Mundo said. The staffing crisis is behind nearly every issue at Los Padrinos and, until that is fixed, the facility will continue to fail inspections, he said.

“They’re trying on a daily basis to get staff to come to work,” he said. “What technical support can you get for that? This is such a unique problem.”

Mundo compared the problem to the “chicken and the egg.” Officers call out sick, or take medical leaves, because they fear for their safety in the juvenile hall or because they don’t want to be held over for excessively long shifts. Those call-outs then make the juvenile hall less safe, causing more people to call out. Meanwhile, officers redeployed from the field have had their lives disrupted to fill in for the missing detention officers and it has created animosity, Mundo said.

“Until you get the staff back, nothing is going to go forward, because we’re going to keep falling out of compliance,” he said.

Reduce juvenile hall population?

Mundo and others have pushed for the department to reduce the population at Los Padrinos to “right-size” it to the available staff. The hope is that through the use of home detentions and community alternatives, the department can limit Los Padrinos to holding only those who could not be safely assigned elsewhere.

The department’s most recently rejected corrective action plan described similar efforts, but the work didn’t start until Oct. 1, less than two weeks before the BSCC’s deadline, and the plan did not include any timeline for its implementation, which BSCC noted in its rejection letter.

The BSCC launched a “comprehensive inspection” at Los Padrinos on the same day that it rejected the most recent corrective action plan. That inspection will be even more thorough than others in the last year.

The Probation Department is expected to present its plans for addressing the potential closure of Los Padrinos at the Oversight Commission’s Nov. 14 meeting.