Los Angeles County was forced last year to move hundreds of incarcerated youths out of two facilities deemed unsuitable by a state board and into the Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey.
The two facilities, Barry J. Nidorf in Sylmar and Central Juvenile Hall near downtown L.A., had been plagued by problems for years, including not enough staffing, which authorities said affected supervision, programming and other daily operations.
Now, the same board has a list of roughly a dozen concerns about Los Padrinos, including staffing shortages, as well as failures to conduct safety checks and use-of-force training.
The California Board of State and Community Corrections will decide at its Thursday meeting whether the Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall is suitable to continue holding hundreds of young people. If Los Padrinos is deemed unsuitable, that could leave the county in a situation reminiscent of last spring, when it was ordered to relocate about 270 children and teens in about two months.
“Nothing changed,” said parent Adreena Rochall, who has spoken out about conditions at Los Padrinos since her son was transferred there last year. “They’re really affecting the kids. and they’re the ones that gotta go through this.”
How we got here
In May 2023, the state board gave L.A. County 60 days to transfer nearly 300 incarcerated youths to Los Padrinos. The board said some youths at the Barry J. Nidorf and Central juvenile halls reported they were not let out of their rooms at night and had to “urinate in a receptacle.”
During board hearings, commenters from the public reported seeing young people languishing at Nidorf, sitting for hours a…
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