Less than a year after a California regulator shut down its two juvenile halls, Los Angeles County is again being slammed for housing youth in substandard conditions at poorly staffed facilities.

In an hours-long meeting today, the Board of State and Community Corrections acted after numerous inspections of the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility and the Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, calling the facilities “unsuitable” for the confinement of minors.

“It’s kind of like the house is on fire, and you thought it was a barbecue,” said Palm Springs Police Chief Andrew Mills, a member of the board overseeing adult and juvenile detention facilities. “At some point, you’ve got to get serious with this and get this thing fixed.”

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said it was “unfortunate” that county probation officials had failed to own up to what she describes as “unacceptable conditions” at the two facilities run by the department. 

“I am concerned about the future of the Probation Department and whether they are capable of the reform that we all know needs to happen,” a statement released by the supervisor states.

As a result of the board’s decision, L.A. County will have 60 days to vacate youth from the facilities, or to address the issues of non-compliance. In a Feb. 7 letter to Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa, the board found 11 areas of concern at Los Padrinos, including a failure to adequately train probation officers; no indication that workers regularly checked on youth; and the lack of a fire safety plan. The board also noted a lack of recreation time and educational opportunities — about half of youth locked up in the hall were regularly late to class.

The oversight agency found seven violations at the Barry J. Nidorf facility — which now houses about 50 youth found to have committed serious or violent offenses. Problems at that facility range from poor safety checks to inappropriate use of force and discipline.

After two months, the Board of State and Community Corrections will inspect the facilities again. If the deficiencies remain, the county could lose its operating license for the second time in roughly a year.

A similar process has been going on for years. In 2021, state overseers first declared the county’s two juvenile halls unsuitable for young people — at the time an unprecedented decision by the corrections board. 

But the county was unable to clean house at the time. And last May, L.A. County was given 60 days to vacate the two facilities located in the Lincoln Heights and Sylmar neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Plan B was to hastily refurbish the Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey. That facility had been vacant since shuttering in 2019.

“as long as we have a department culture that perpetuates a broken system and state laws that uphold the status quo, this nightmare will continue.”

— Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath

Several months later, in August, inspections took place at both the Nidorf facility — where young people who had been moved from state-run youth prisons remained, although others had been moved months earlier — and the Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall. 

Despite assertions by local probation officials, when inspectors returned to examine the facilities this month and last, the state corrections board deemed them out of compliance with California standards. 

At today’s public meeting in Sacramento, two probation officials argued that the department had made improvements in recent weeks, while also acknowledging that there was still much work to be done. 

“We recognize that there is an absence of trust,” Deputy Chief Kimberly Epps told board members.

She asked the board to create a task force that would partner with L.A. County to implement needed reforms.

Linda Penner, executive director of the Board of State and Community Corrections, rebuffed that suggestion, calling it inappropriate for the state oversight body to be that closely “embedded” with county officials.

Dozens of youth justice advocates — some appearing virtually and others who traveled the 350 miles to appear in person at the meeting — urged state officials to declare the facilities unsuitable so that genuine change could take place. They highlighted the dysfunction and violence that has continued to plague the facilities in recent months.

“Stop wasting time, energy and resources on a broken system. Instead invest in youth development,” Youth Justice Coalition organizer Jacob Jackson said during public comment.

County supervisor Lindsey Horvath appeared to agree. 

“Today’s hearing illustrates exactly why we must dismantle our system of youth justice entirely and build out the care-first vision that our young people need and deserve,” she said at the public hearing. “But as long as we have a department culture that perpetuates a broken system and state laws that uphold the status quo, this nightmare will continue.”

Problems in these facilities date back decades. In May, L.A County officials announced they might have to pay out as much as $3 billion to settle as many as 3,000 legal claims involving abuse of children detained at probation-run camps and halls. Some officers accused of rape and sexual abuse may still work at the probation department, a December report in the L.A. Times found.

Also in May, an 18-year-old held at the Barry J. Nidorf juvenile hall died of a fentanyl overdose. Since then, at least nine other young people in probation department custody have overdosed, amid an apparently uncontrolled influx of contraband. According to a report by the L.A. County Office of the Inspector General, a football stuffed with marijuana and lighters was recently smuggled into the facility.

Since the county moved hundreds of youth into Los Padrinos nine months ago, little appears to have improved. Youth have escaped and attacked staff, and a gun was discovered in an unlocked drawer accessible to other detained young people, the L.A. Times reported in July. In January, eight probation officers were suspended after allegedly encouraging a fight that left one youth badly beaten.

Mora Greer, a youth advocate with the Long Beach-based Arts for Healing and Justice Network, said the probation department has repeatedly failed to look out for the safety of youth in its care. Officers didn’t check up on the 18-year-old in time to prevent his drug overdose at the Nidorf facility, she said, while other young people continue to urinate in their cells because officers don’t let them out to go to the bathroom.

“No young person deserves that treatment,” Greer said.