LA County enacts emergency powers to save failing Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has enacted emergency powers, typically reserved for disasters, to speed up the hiring and firing of probation officers and allow for the deployment of potentially hundreds of county employees from other departments to bolster staffing at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, which remains open in defiance of state law.

The emergency proclamation, passed by a 4-1 vote Tuesday, Dec. 17, will activate “disaster service workers” from around the county to temporarily take over the civilian duties of probation officers.

“We have sworn staff that are not on the line, and what I mean by that is they are handling administrative duties, personnel, budget, contracting, etc,” said Fesia Davenport, the county’s chief executive officer, during a press conference Tuesday. “The strategy here is to bring in folks from other departments who are trained in those areas, who can handle those functions, and thereby free up the sworn folks to then go to Los Padrinos.”

Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa indicated the need to add “200 to 300 staff at Los Padrinos to shore up” the facility, according to Davenport.

That number includes the use of any peace officer, including reserve officers and recent retirees, to help stabilize the juvenile hall while efforts to hire new recruits are underway. The county is offering incentives of up to $24,000 for lateral transfers, according to the board’s motion. A spokesperson for Supervisor Kathryn Barger, the motion‘s author alongside Supervisor Hilda Solis, said it will not include the deployment of sheriff’s deputies to the facility.

Eduardo Mundo, chair of the county Probation Oversight Commission and a former probation supervisor, isn’t optimistic that many retirees would want to return.

“Most of these officers that are recently retired are running like crazy out of here,” Mundo said. Lateral hires also may be tough to convince, he said, as the Probation Department will have to compete against law enforcement agencies across the state.

The emergency proclamation came on the same day Los Angeles County agreed to pay $30 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the Probation Department “failed to ensure safe and habitable conditions for more than 7,000 youth housed at juvenile facilities from 2014 to present.”

The class-action lawsuit alleged youth at Central Juvenile Hall and Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall — which, similar to Los Padrinos, were ordered shut down by the state last year — were not provided with warm bedding and clothing, failed to receive required programming, exercise and religious services, and were subject to excessive restraints and use of pepper spray.

Persistent staffing crunch

Los Padrinos has struggled to maintain consistent staffing since the day it opened in July 2023. It immediately failed its first inspection and has teetered in and out of compliance with state regulations over the last year-and-a-half. In October, the Board of State and Community Corrections, the regulatory agency overseeing California’s jails and juvenile halls, warned county officials that, under state law, they needed to fix the short staffing at Los Padrinos or close the facility by Dec. 12.

The day before the deadline, Los Angeles County told the BSCC it intends to appeal its most recent inspection, and that it would not be closing until that process plays out. Now, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge has ordered the Probation Department to appear for a Dec. 23 hearing to determine whether Los Padrinos should be allowed to remain open.

As of October, more than 62% of Los Padrinos “active employees” were either on a continuous or intermittent leave of absence, according to data provided to the Probation Oversight Commission. Though the department has rotated in field officers to help out for months now, the numbers have continued to decline. As part of a crackdown on officers refusing to work at Los Padrinos, the department has sent employees with work restrictions home until alternative assignments are available.

Some officers have filed a class-action lawsuit as a result.

On average, about 14% of Los Padrinos’ staff members call out, according to Viera Rosa.

‘Entire model breaks down’

“Staff is at the core of this and when you don’t have the right amount of staff, our entire model breaks down,” Viera Rosa said during Tuesday’s meeting.

The county now believes some of the medical notes “might be strategic in the sense that folks don’t want to come to work to report to the juvenile hall,” according to Davenport.

The motion directs the Department of Human Resources to assemble a task force to “expeditiously process all pending return-to-work matters for existing LPJH employees” and gives it authority to enact discipline against probation employees who refuse to show up. The leaves and constant call-outs at Los Padrinos have created a domino effect, where employees have begun calling out because they feel unsafe because there aren’t enough officers available during the shifts.

Environment rife with violence

The understaffing has created a tense environment rife with violence within the county’s largest juvenile detention facility. The Probation Department reported 800 uses of force in the 181 days from Jan. 1 to June 30, according to a report to the Probation Oversight Commission. That’s four incidents per day in which officers intervened with either physical force, or by using pepper spray, and that figure doesn’t include any violence that resolved before officers could intervene.

The emergency proclamation is a “critical step toward bringing stability to the youth housed at Los Padrinos,” according to Barger.

“Provisions in the emergency proclamation will help us bring more trained and qualified staff to Los Padrinos and discipline those who are absconding their work responsibilities,” Barger said in a statement. “Our emergency proclamation will help us address systemic issues head on and deliver the resources and reforms necessary to achieve meaningful change.”

Horvath opposed

Supervisor Lindsey Horvath was the lone vote against the motion.

“Nearly two years after calling for a Global Plan to address this crisis, our Board is still waiting for Probation to deliver, and as a result of these failures, hundreds of youth are housed in unsafe conditions,” Horvath said. “Now that the majority of the Board has granted additional power to the Chief Probation Officer, we must ensure present and engaged leadership that allows for the rehabilitation and growth of our young people.

“Doubling down on failed strategies is not the solution — it’s time for accountability and decisive action that places the safety and well-being of our youth first.”

Advocates: ‘Shame on you’

Dozens of advocates who spoke at the Tuesday meeting urged the board to reject the motion and called for the release of all youth in custody at Los Padrinos. After the vote, the board had to ask for members of the audience to be removed for repeatedly yelling “shame on you.”

The Los Angeles Youth Uprising Coalition, in a 29-page letter signed by 25 youth organizations, offered its own alternatives, which included changes to how the Probation Department and courts determine who should be sent to Los Padrinos in the first place. The organizations have called for the county to dramatically reduce the population at Los Padrinos and to move all programming and funding to the Department of Youth Development.

“The inhumane conditions within L.A. County’s juvenile halls go beyond what any person, let alone a child, should have to endure,” said Emily Zamora, policy associate and youth organizer at the Youth Justice Coalition, in a statement. “The gut-wrenching stories of youth inside having to drink bleach to get medical attention, being forced into fights, and having their bodily autonomy repeatedly violated by probation officers paint a terrifying picture of neglect and abuse where there should be resources, support, and genuine love.”

An amendment, offered by Supervisor Janice Hahn, will require the Probation Department to release youth accused of minor offenses to community detention programs and electronic monitoring when possible.

“We need to release more youth from Los Padrinos who do not pose a threat and who do not belong there,” Hahn said during the meeting. “Not every young person in Los Padrinos is charged with a serious and violent crime.”

Hahn’s amendment also requires Probation Chief Viera Rosa to spend at least one day a week at Los Padrinos, to show up at Probation Oversight Commission meetings, and to report back to the board weekly on his progress toward compliance.