A Los Angeles County judge ordered Friday, April 18, that officials develop a plan to depopulate the troubled Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, calling the facility “unlawful” and demanding that in-custody youth be relocated to other secure facilities.
Superior Court Judge Miguel Espinoza ordered the county Probation Department to provide a plan within two weeks detailing how it will safely remove the 272 juveniles from Los Padrinos and warned he would take more immediate action if the proposal isn’t “serious” enough.
“The current situation is untenable,” Espinoza said, setting a May 2 deadline for the plan.
Probation officials will need to accomplish that depopulation in a way that “does not cause harm to the youth” or “danger to the public,” he said.
Espinoza’s order comes just days after three youths at Los Padrinos were sent to the hospital for suspected fentanyl overdoses and a little more than a month after a grand jury indicted 30 probation employees for allegedly allowing — and sometimes orchestrating — 69 “gladiator-style” fights within the juvenile hall.
The judge took up the question of whether juveniles can be held in Los Padrinos as part of a juvenile murder case before him, though his ruling impacts dozens of other challenges to the continued use of Los Padrinos.
Espinoza left open the possibility that the Downey facility could continue to be used if the department can reduce the population enough to pass a new inspection by state regulators. While L.A. County has other facilities that could take small portions of the juveniles at Los Padrinos, none of the existing facilities can hold the entire population.
The county will need approval from the state before any transfers can occur because no others are currently authorized to hold “pre-disposition” youth, a designation that means the juveniles in the custody have been charged with a crime but have not yet had their cases adjudicated.
‘Measured approach’
In a statement, L.A. County Probation Department spokesperson Vicky Waters described Espinoza’s ruling as “a measured approach — one that avoids the release of youth and supports a safe and orderly transition to other youth facilities.”
“In response to today’s court ruling, the Probation Department will move swiftly to implement a depopulation plan for Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall that aligns with our broader facilities strategy and prioritizes public safety,” Waters stated. “Our existing proposed global facilities plan already called for relocating high-needs young men and women from Los Padrinos, and this ruling allows us to accelerate that effort.
“We remain fully committed to protecting the well-being of both the young people in our care and our staff, and will continue to work and collaborate closely with our County and State partners.”
The department unveiled its “global plan” earlier this year to a mostly negative reception from the county Board of Supervisors, some of whom described it as half-baked. The plan recommended closing Camp Joseph Paige in La Verne and discontinuing the use of the former Central Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles as a medical hub. Under the proposal, L.A. County would shift all of the girls in its custody to Camp Kilpatrick in the Santa Monica Mountains, effectively reducing the population at Los Padrinos by about 30.
Los Padrinos, meanwhile, would be split into two, with one-half holding youth expected to stay in the facility for less than 30 days, while the other would be for longer stays and focus on “reducing recidivism and fostering resilience,” according to Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa.
The proposal did not include significant reductions in the juvenile hall’s population beyond the relocation of the girls.
Most detainees accused of violence
Since then, Los Padrinos’ population has shot up from about 230 to 272. Statistics provided by the Probation Department indicated about 76% of those in custody at Los Padrinos are accused of violent crimes.
Espinoza told probation officials that their future plan to depopulate must include a timeline that is “consistent” with the state of emergency declared by the Board of Supervisors in December.
County Supervisor Janice Hahn, a critic of Viera Rosa’s “global plan,” offered her support for Espinoza’s ruling in a statement.
“There are young people in Los Padrinos who should be moved to alternate facilities, but there are also many who can and should be safely released back home, monitored with ankle monitors, or cared for in community-based placements like a Boys Republic,” Hahn stated. “At this time, my ultimate concern is for the well-being of the hundreds of young people in our care who have not been getting what they need to rehabilitate.”
Both the Public Defender’s and the District Attorney’s offices will get a chance to weigh in on the Probation Department’s plan ahead of the next hearing in Espinoza’s courtroom on May 16.
In a statement, Luis Rodriguez, the division chief for the L.A. County Public Defender’s Youth Services Division, called the court’s order a “step in the right direction.”
“The Probation Department’s chaos creates dangerous ripple effects on our youth’s safety,” Rodriguez stated. “Time and again, in report after report, we’ve seen neglect, mismanagement and abuse, all while officials insist that change is coming.”
The Public Defender’s Office is looking forward to “participating in the development of the plan to depopulate Los Padrinos,” Rodriguez said.
Ruling ‘surprising’
Eduardo Mundo, a former probation officer and chair of the county Probation Oversight Commission, said the Probation Department will need to transfer youth to other facilities and to utilize home detention more frequently to meet the court’s mandate. That also will require it to return more of its field officers to work, as a large portion of those who oversee juveniles on house arrest have either been redeployed to help out at Los Padrinos, or have been forced on leaves for having work restrictions that would prevent them from being redeployed to the juvenile hall.
Mundo described Espinoza’s ruling as surprising, but said it is clear that Probation’s existing plan to come back into compliance “is not working.” The recent suspected overdoses at Los Padrinos and the fentanyl-related death of a juvenile in custody in 2023 are evidence of the need for urgent changes, he said.
“The likelihood of more overdoses, the likelihood of another kid dying, is high,” he said.
Months of uncertainty
The order to depopulate Los Padrinos’ follows months of uncertainty about the facility’s future.
The Board of State and Community Corrections, the regulatory body overseeing California’s juvenile halls, deemed Los Padrinos “unsuitable” for the confinement of youth in October after inspectors found a pervasive staffing shortage had left the facility unable to meet the bare minimum of standards. Though state law required the juvenile hall to close in December as a result, the Probation Department refused to comply and argued it had nowhere else to send the juveniles in its custody.
L.A. County attempted to appeal the BSCC’s decision and asked for — and received — a reinspection from the state agency, but neither gambit paid off and the BSCC determined that Los Padrinos remained out of compliance at its April meeting.
Espinoza delayed his decision three times while that process was playing out.
The Probation Department filed a last-minute lawsuit against the BSCC in the Superior Court just days before Friday’s hearing. The petition asks a judge to stay enforcement of the BSCC’s decision and to reverse the BSCC’s April 10 decision to reject the county’s appeal.
The county’s attorneys in the court filing described being forced to “navigate inconsistent — and conflicting — directives from the BSCC” and argued that the BSCC’s staff misapplied the state’s standards during recent inspections. The department maintains that staffing levels at Los Padrinos “met — and often greatly exceeded — staffing ratios” required under California law.
The BSCC’s denial of its appeal “was arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by the evidence in the record, in excess of its authority and a prejudicial abuse of discretion,” the filing states.
During Friday’s hearing, Espinoza took the stance that the new legal battle was not before him and would not delay his ruling once again.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Judge orders LA County to depopulate Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall )
Also on site :