California AG asks judge to place LA County juvenile halls into receivership

LOS ANGELES (CN) — California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Wednesday that he will ask a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to hand control of the county’s beleaguered juvenile halls over to the state.

“This drastic step to divest Los Angeles County of control over its juvenile halls is a last resort — and the only option left to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the youth currently in its care,” said Bonta in a written statement. “For four-and-a-half years, we’ve moved aggressively to bring the county into compliance with our judgment — and we’ve been met with glacial progress that has too often looked like one step forward and two steps back. Enough is enough.”

In 2021, the county agreed to a stipulated judgement aimed at fixing its troubled juvenile hall system, which has been plagued by drugs, violence and child abuse accusations. But the county, according to Bonta, has made little progress, and is out of compliance on 75% of the judgement’s provisions. In fact, he said, conditions have continued to deteriorate.

“Persistent failures include adequate staffing of the juvenile halls; stemming the flow of drugs; preventing staff from instigating or encouraging youth-on-youth assaults; delivering youth to medical appointments; preventing retaliation against youth who file grievances; and ensuring cameras are installed in all areas and that video footage is reviewed, among other concerns,” Bonta said in a press release.

Two facilities were shut down in 2023, after years of noncompliance and substandard conditions, causing the department to move some 300 youths. That same year, an 18-year-old died of a drug overdose at a juvenile treatment center. Since then, drug overdoses in the system have remained commonplace.

In March, criminal charges were filed against 30 juvenile detention officers for organizing and overseeing 69 “gladiator fights” over the course of a six-month period in 2023 at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey.

The facility, which had been shut down and reopened, has also seen a riot and an escape attempt. Last year, the Board of State and Community Corrections told the county to close Los Padrinos again, but the head of the county probation department ignored the order. Later, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered the county to empty out the facility.

During a June site visit to Los Padrinos, a court-appointed monitor called the conditions shameful, noting that “the facility and youth rooms are extremely dirty, unkept, and covered in graffiti.” In a report, he called some of the living units uninhabitable and said the medical unit was not sanitary.

The county’s juvenile halls are wracked by staffing shortages, thanks to high rates of extended leave and employees who simply don’t show up to work. Those shortages impacted the facilities’ ability to provide medical care, education and other programming, the monitor said.

“Youth idleness due to the lack of meaningful and consistent programming … has contributed to increased incidents of violence, use of force, and injuries to youth and staff,” according to a written declaration filed with the court.

The shortages also mean that, contrary to regulations, youth are routinely left confined in their cells for between 45 minutes to two hours at a time, for what the court-appointed monitor calls “operational or convenience purposes.” Staff reportedly often fail to perform safety checks, and use pepper spray “as a first-line response, rather than attempting to de-escalate situations.”

“Continuing to insist on the county itself bringing the juvenile halls into compliance would result only in infliction of further harm on youth and further waste of taxpayer dollars,” Bonta’s office wrote in its application filed with the court.

The attorney general also asks the judge to appoint the judgement’s existing monitor — “a nationally respected juvenile justice expert with a track record for reforming juvenile facilities” — as the receiver, granting him control over operations and the power to make drastic changes.

Bonta also asks the court to set up a compensation fund “that will help repair harm to youth who have been injured by the county’s past noncompliance.”

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