State regulators, advocates prepare to sue if LA County refuses to close troubled juvenile hall

A state regulatory agency and community advocates are separately preparing for potential legal battles with Los Angeles County in the event its leadership refuses to comply with an order to remove 300 youth from the troubled Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall by Dec. 12.

That forced closure seems all but inevitable now after the Board of State and Community Corrections, the regulatory agency overseeing California’s jails and juvenile halls, took no action to reverse its shutdown order during its meeting Thursday, Nov. 21, the last currently scheduled for this year.

Under state law, Los Padrinos still could pass a new inspection proving it has enough staff to continue operating the juvenile hall. But even if that happens within the next three weeks, the BSCC must meet and affirm the findings to officially stop the clock. If that doesn’t happen by Dec. 12, the law states the facility “shall not be used for the confinement of juveniles” until the BSCC makes a determination otherwise.

Sean Garcia-Leys, co-executive director of the Peace and Justice Law Center and a former L.A. County probation oversight commissioner, said his organization and other advocacy groups are already planning to file lawsuits on Dec. 13 challenging the use of Los Padrinos if it remains open.

Such litigation would ask a judge to force the county to empty the facility and to hold county leaders in contempt if they continue to violate the law. Youth in custody at Los Padrinos would likely get sent to other counties, because L.A. County does not have any remaining facilities large enough to house a population of its size.

County leadership failed

Garcia-Leys described L.A. County’s refusal to plan for the potential closure as a failing of the entire county’s leadership.

“It’s really the Board of Supervisors, not just the Probation Department, that has failed here,” he said.

Only Supervisor Kathryn Barger could be reached for comment.

“We are navigating uncharted waters,” Barger said in a statement. “If Los Padrinos remains unsuitable for pre-adjudicated youth, the County does not have another site to adequately house, supervise and rehabilitate them. Unless the state is ready to take on that responsibility themselves, we are out of viable options.”

Barger emphasized that “shuffling our youth from site to site, which upsets their routines and stability, is counterproductive and can be harmful.

“I remain deeply concerned about the well-being of these young lives,” she stated. “We must not fail them. Our County’s Probation Department must follow through on the work that needs to be done.”

Probation Department: ‘Working diligently’

In a statement Thursday, the Probation Department said it has been “in communication with the BSCC, including requesting to be included in today’s agenda to discuss Los Padrinos, which they denied.”

“The department has made several improvements to the facility and are working diligently to meet standards,” the statement reads. “We are currently reviewing our options, including engaging with BSCC again to ensure the youth and families are not adversely impacted before the holidays.”

The department has not publicly revealed any plans for the potential closure and has instead pledged to correct the inadequate staffing numbers that landed it in this quagmire in the first place. A key part of that solution is reducing the population at Los Padrinos to a more manageable level, but critics are skeptical whether that can happen quickly enough to make a difference.

As of July, nearly 20% of the shifts at Los Padrinos did not meeting staffing minimums.

Probation officers, juveniles in custody, lawyers and advocates have all reported that dangerously low staffing at Los Padrinos has led to an uptick in violence. As a result, a significant portion of the employees in the juvenile hall have opted to take leaves or call out every day, further exacerbating the issue.

Los Padrinos reopened in 2023

The BSCC forced Los Angeles County to close Central Juvenile Hall and Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall for the same reasons last year. In that case though, L.A. County accepted defeat and immediately shifted to reopening Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, closed in 2019, to consolidate the populations to a single location.

Los Padrinos was not able to stabilize and began failing inspections, too, and the BSCC first ordered it to close in February. The county opted not to develop a plan for the potential closure then either, but it managed to briefly correct the staffing issues, through the controversial redeployment of more than 100 officers from the field, and the BSCC, at its regular meeting in April, granted a reprieve just days before the deadline.

It took about only a few months before Los Padrinos was back out of compliance. In October, the BSCC rejected L.A. County’s latest plan to fix staffing, describing the proposal as inadequate and lacking reasonable timeframes.

Los Angeles County’s game of chicken paid off earlier this year, but this time is different, Garcia-Leys insists.

The BSCC is not scheduled to meet again until February and its members have made their frustrations with L.A. County’s continued failures well-known. Not only is the county facing scrutiny for staffing, but a recent inspection found Los Padrinos is deficient in nearly a dozen new areas and never completed promised reforms in others.

‘No possible winning’

“This time, there’s no possible winning, and they are continuing to do nothing,” Garcia-Leys said. “This is the first time they’ve taken it this far.”

BSCC Executive Director Aaron Maguire, during the meeting Thursday, expressed skepticism about Los Padrinos’ prospects. County officials have not asked for a new inspection — the first step in the remediation process — with only days left on the clock.

“My sense and indication again is that they are not going to be able to remedy the items of non-compliance by Dec. 12,” he said.

But how the BSCC enforces a closure is still an “open question,” he said. The state board, which was formed in 2012, has never been in this situation. Only two juvenile halls — both in L.A. County in 2023 — have ever been closed by the agency and that was done amicably.

Maguire told the board its only remedy may be a lawsuit, but that he’s still researching other options and would prefer to discuss the matter in closed session at a later date. The board agreed to schedule a special meeting after the Dec. 12 deadline in the event L.A. County goes rogue, but it did not select a specific date.

Board member Angeles Zaragoza described the Los Angeles County Probation Department’s potential defiance as a “blatant disregard” of its obligations.

“I’m just kind of at a loss as to how we have gotten here and the idea of Dec. 12 coming and going without any word or sense of accountability by that department is incredibly troubling to me and really should be concerning to this body,” she said.