State Board Allows Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall To Remain Open Despite Concerns From Advocates, Families

A state board that oversees correctional facilities decided Thursday to allow Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey to continue to house incarcerated young people after determining that it had met the minimum requirements on staffing levels and safety checks.

In making the decision, the Board of State and Community Corrections also found that the Los Angeles County Probation Department's efforts to meet use-of-force training and other requirements were improving.

The move comes just days before a deadline for the department to move some 300 incarcerated youths out of the facility if it could not meet the requirements.

“L.A. appears to have remedied the outstanding items of non-compliance,” said Linda Penner, chair of the state board. “I also feel a need to point out that the problems in L.A. are long-standing and serious and this recommendation was not easy to formulate.”

The vote comes about a year after L.A. County was forced to move hundreds of incarcerated youths into Los Padrinos from two other facilities — Central Juvenile Hall and Barry J. Nidorf Hall — that the state board deemed unsuitable.

In a statement following Thursday’s meeting, Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa said he was pleased with the decision.

“Under the Board of Supervisor’s direction, the Probation Department has made great strides addressing deficiencies at facilities by increasing and stabilizing staff levels, providing hundreds of hours of additional training, and working closely with BSCC staff to tighten procedures and protocols,” Viera Rosa said.

In a statement last week, the department also said it was “continuing to work to attract talented individuals passionate about community service and criminal justice reform” to fill openings for detention officers and a night supervisor.

‘Youth will continue to suffer’

Some youth justice reform advocates expressed disappointment that Los Padrinos would be allowed to continue housing youths.

“My biggest concern is that the youth will continue to suffer,” said Aditi Sherikar, a senior policy associate at the Children’s Defense Fund of California.

Sherikar said many Probation Department violations — including safety checks, lack of programming and more — at Los Padrinos stem from staffing issues: officers calling out of work and chronic personnel shortages. Sherikar said the department does not seem to have a permanent fix for the staffing issues and has used tactics like pulling field officers into the juvenile facilities to come into “paperwork compliance.”

Those moves, Sherikar said, appeared to send a signal to the state board: “Look, we have this many bodies from probation in the facility on the day of your inspection. Everything is good.”

Sherikar said she expects that Los Padrinos will be found to be out of compliance with state requirements within months.

Kent Mendoza, associate policy director with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, said he had spent time at Los Padrinos over a decade ago. He said he is concerned that young people held at the facility still aren’t getting enough vocational training.

“We at least have to ensure that young people in these facilities have all the support that is necessary so that we can get them out early or get them ready," he said, adding that when the time comes for the youth to be sent home, they are less likely to reoffend.

Board of Supervisors meeting shut down

On Tuesday, a group of youth justice organizers, formerly incarcerated youths and others temporarily shut down the L.A. County Board of Supervisors meeting. Many of them chanted: “Shut down Los Padrinos!”

Organizers said they wanted the board to declare a state of emergency at Los Padrinos and Barry J. Nidorf’s Secure Youth Treatment Facility in Sylmar.

Outside the meeting, Emilio Zapien, with the Youth Justice Coalition, pointed to several issues within the probation department that spurred protesters’ demands. He noted that eight officers were placed on leave in January for allegedly allowing fighting between youth, and a probation employee at Dorothy Kirby Center who was arrested on suspicion of “sex with an inmate” and other charges.

Last year, Bryan Diaz, 18, died of an apparent drug overdose at Nidorf Hall.

“We’re at a precipice now where, almost a year ago, Bryan Diaz passed away inside of juvenile hall,” Zapien said. “We’re here to save people’s lives and to urge the board to decarcerate young people.”

For years, organizers have urged local leaders to invest in alternatives to incarceration programs as imagined under the county's new Department of Youth Development.

Adreena Rochall said outside the stalled supervisors’ meeting Tuesday that her son was recently transferred from Los Padrinos to another facility in Sylmar. She said her son is now getting help through the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, a group which offers employment, job training, and a host of other services to formerly incarcerated people.

Rochall said she was there to apply pressure on the supervisors.

“To let them know that we’re still here, we’re still fighting. You can’t push us to the side,” Rochall said. “We stand on a great cause and it’s something everyone should be passionate about: it’s our kids, it’s the future.”