When Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall reopened in July 2023, probation officers arriving for their first shifts were forced to surrender the pepper spray canisters they had relied on to combat fights and unruly youth at other juvenile facilities.
“There will be no pepper spray at this location,” Felicia Cotton, then-acting chief deputy of the Los Angeles Probation Department, had plainly vowed during a July 13 presentation to the Probation Oversight Commission.
The agency saw Los Padrinos as a chance to finally implement a long-delayed directive from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to stop using oleoresin capsicum spray, commonly known as pepper spray or “OC” spray, in the juvenile halls.
The ban lasted just two weeks before its complete reversal.
The fresh start imagined by county officials collapsed when 13 teens broke out of their units on the night of July 28, 2023, smashing doors and windows and brawling with staff until they reached Los Padrinos’ walls. There, the oldest in the group scaled a wall and escaped onto the neighboring golf course before he was apprehended. Police officers in riot gear swarmed the facility to help restore order.
The next day, Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa temporarily issued pepper spray to all permanent staff at Los Padrinos “until the facility is fully stabilized,” but pledged to revisit the decision promptly.
A year later, pepper spray is now used an average of 1.3 times per day at Los Padrinos and has been quietly reinstated in units that house vulnerable populations, including girls and youth with developmental disabilities, against the Board of Supervisors’ orders, according to a Southern California News Group analysis of two years of incident data.
Critics blame a lack of training in deescalation tactics and a punitive culture among officers for Los Padrinos’ reliance on pepper spray, while its proponents argue it is a necessary tool to prevent violence from escalating amid a staffing shortage that has left…
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