A regulatory board of the state has ordered the Los Angeles County to close its two largest teenage facilities in the next 60 days, establishing a platform for a possible nightmare scenario, where the county will have hundreds of youths, who are in their detention and are nowhere to catch them.
Officials of the Los Angeles County Probation Department requested the Board of State and Community Karecs, regulatory agency, which oversees jails and adolescent halls in California, on Thursday, February 15, to delay the decision and to form a partnership inste The hall will be designed to fix the system.
But the board was not fed up with La County in the last three years, it was not done. Board members declared both Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, open for less than a year, and Barry J. Nidorf safe youth treatment facility to be “unsuitable” to continue housing youth in Silmer.
With such a determination, a 60-day watch begins, in which the county should either bring features to the minimum standards of the state or shut down indefinitely.
This is the accurate situation that County found itself last year, when BSCC has Central and Barry Ji on similar concerns. Nidorf Juvenile Hall, SYTF unit was ordered to minus. In response, County scrambled to renovate and reopen los padrinos, which was first closed in 2019, as a new house for adolescent girls before passing in July.
This time, however, the Los Angeles County does not have another los padrino, which is to fall back, and its various teenage camps are much smaller to keep more than a fraction of youth in Los Padrino today. The probation department did not answer the questions what it would do in the incident that Los Padrino cannot be decided in time.
Through a spokes, Los Angeles County stated that BSCC’s decision “County keeps the triage in a position to continue instead of proceeding with ongoing reforms to achieve permanent changes.”
“We intend to use a 60-day regulatory window to take all the necessary steps to meet the state’s requirements,” the statement states. “We had expected a BSCC agreement on a joint strike force, which can provide clarity around the goals and how the results are measured. Although that request was rejected, we will continue to advance the probation department to use every equipment to avoid closing, we will continue to further the probation department, which will make the current situation more challenging for our youth.”
Seen Garcia-Les, a co-executive director of Peace and Justice Law Center and a member of the Probation Oversite Commission, Los Angeles County, said County would have to find a more managed way to reduce the population in Los Padrino if he wants to avoid shutdown.
He said that some youth may be involved in a combination of sending to teen halls in neighboring counted – preferably for Orange County, which is still enough for families – and to keep others under electronic surveillance, he said. Garcia-Lice, who recently inspected the Los Padrino in the last week, estimates that the teenage hall would need to leave about 100 to 150 youths-at all about half the time where it is now-to stabilize at their current staffing levels.
The Los Angeles County continues to struggle with the call-out of the employees on its adolescent features and an abundance of medical leaves, the county officials have estimated about 1,400 employees-about one-third of the clan of the department is on leave. The department has taken more than 500 disciplinary action since October 2022, which were against employees who have not shown excessively, or shown for change, but the problem persists.
In August, state inspections found that County did not have enough employees to provide necessary security and services by the state law.
Inspectors determined that Los Padrinos, waiting for about 300 youths to appear in the court, did not train the employees properly on the use of the force, continuously failed to bring the youth to school on time and did not offer adequate entertainment, some youth did not sit in front of the TV, instead of watching films or playing video games, they did not go on the bed.
The youth have complained about doing nothing during the day and urination in their rooms due to lack of employees.
Los Padrinos has experienced two violent attempts since opening in summer of 203. Last month, eight officers were allegedly on leave to run, which critics called a “Fight Club” inside the Kishore Hall.
A similar situation, although not as serious, Barry J. Found in Nidorf, a safe facility, in which around 50 youth were already sentenced and returned to county custody after the disintegration of the state’s Juvenile Department in 2021.
Los Angeles County presented a “corrective action plan” in October how it would address deficiencies. It later declared the work complete in January. But when the inspectors of the state went into facilities later that month, they found that the department did not make enough progress.
Stakeholders and decision makers raised fingers at each other before and after the BSCC decision.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis called unions representing the department employees and called to “remove” to “implement” to “implement a plan” towards “progress and compliance” to support the employees and work with the new leadership of the Supervisors and the Department of Probation.
“Probation continues inside and out of the cycle compliance of adolescent facilities,” he said in a statement and inappropriate needs are being found to end it. ” “I believe that this is a long and deep sitting issue that is directly connected to employees who have long-held leadership posts, who have misused their rights, have closed one eye, and who have created a culture that has enabled the rank-and-filing employees to fulfill the impure, no accountability and rules, policies and standards.”
Meanwhile, both young advocates and probation officials, while speaking at the meeting, criticized the board of supervisors for inaction. Advocates say that observers have not followed a proposal with a proposal called “Youth Justice Remaginated”, which would have placed youth in more home-like centers than adolescent halls. Probation employees pointed to hiring the freeze as due to staffing.
At the meeting, Chief Deputy Kimberly Apps convicted a conflicting mandate from the Department of Justice of BSCC and California, who ordered a separate court against Los Angeles County last year, for unsuccessful inspections of adolescent facilities. He said that the required documents by the Department of Justice did not meet the required standards by the BSCC and created confusion.
While it accepted the struggles of the department, EPPS suggested that both Los Padrino and SITF are actually in compliance, unlike inspectors’ findings, and assured the BSCC that the county can now provide appropriate documents to return that claim.
Members of BSCC pursued LA County to submit a litni of documents a few hours before the suitability hearing begins.
The head of the Fresno County Probation Head, Board Chairman Linda Penner said that it cannot accept the assurance of the department in the light of the history of the department.
He said, “It seems to me in the 12th hour, you come with what you believe that there is a documentation of compliance in many areas, which we found you out of compliance,” he said in response. “And I struggle with it, because we have come here before.”
Los Angeles County Supervisor Jennis Han said in a statement, the department said that “two of our two probation facilities made excuses in today’s BSCC meeting instead of owning unacceptable conditions.”
“Many probation has been unable to fix the problems faced by the major department,” he said. “I am worried about the future of the probation department and are they able to improve the improvement that we all need to be.”
If the Los Angeles County can prove that it is in compliance with state standards, the BSCC can re-connect before the 60-day cutoff and reverse its decision.
The Oversite Commissioner Garcia-Leis said it is likely to SYTF, which is small and has fewer problems, but it is less pronounced for Los Padrino, the feature where most of the county teenagers are kept.
“It seems that it is really possible and perhaps it can be brought into compliance in a few weeks,” he said. “Los Padrinos is far ahead of being obedient, but not yet that I don’t think it can be done in 60 days, if the population was quite small.”
He said that the required solutions would require “decks, multi-sector approach on all hands”, including probation department, adolescent courts, supervisors’ boards and other counties.