A Los Angeles County judge took a major step Friday toward shutting down Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, months after a state oversight body found it “unsuitable” to house youth.
Judge Miguel Espinoza issued a tentative ruling that it was “unlawful” to allow the L.A. County Probation Department to continue housing juveniles at the facility.
Espinoza did not immediately order the hall closed, but told the probation department to submit a plan by early May detailing how it will relocate approximately 270 juveniles — mostly between the ages of 15 and 18 — to other secure locations. The parties are due back in court next month.
The ruling escalates a months-long legal battle. The state Board of State and Community Corrections ordered Los Padrinos shut down in December 2024, finding the department did not have enough staff to safely operate.
But probation officials ignored the order with the backing of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. The L.A. County public defender’s office immediately filed a legal challenge on behalf of one of its clients, which put the matter before Espinoza.
“The Probation Department’s chaos creates dangerous ripple effects on our youth’s safety. Time and again, in report after report, we’ve seen neglect, mismanagement, and abuse, all while officials insist that change is coming,” Luis Rodriguez, chief of the public defender’s office Youth Services Division, said in a statement. “The Court’s order today is a step in the right direction.”
Board of State and Community Corrections Chairwoman Linda Penner also celebrated Espinoza’s ruling.
“We believe today’s order is an important and meaningful step in ensuring the safety and well-being of youth in the custody of Los Angeles County,” she said.
Probation Department Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa was present for the hearing Friday and declined to comment outside the East L.A. courtroom. In light of the order, the department “will move swiftly to implement a depopulation plan for Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall that aligns with our broader facilities strategy and prioritizes public safety,” Vicky Waters, communications director for the Probation Department, said.
Roughly three-quarters of the youths housed at Los Padrinos are awaiting court hearings connected to violent offenses including murder, attempted murder, assault, robbery, kidnapping and gang crimes, according to Waters.
Viera Rosa traveled to Sacramento last week to appeal the Board of State and Community Corrections’ decision, arguing the department had met minimum staffing requirements.
But the board rejected the appeal, noting “staff shortages” were still leading to situations where youth were not receiving proper medical attention, missing school time and sitting around unattended after being hit with chemical spray that is at times used to quell disturbances.
“We continue to have concerns with the ability of the department to develop a long-term sustainable solution to address deficiencies with staffing,” the board’s last report read. “Facility staffing documentation continues to indicate that deployed staff are used to backfill youth supervision staffing, an indication that the department continues to rely on a solution that was intended to be a short-term solution as far back as 2022.”
In the months since probation ignored the Board of State and Community Corrections’ order, news of misconduct and injuries to youths at Los Padrinos have continued to pile up.
The California attorney general’s office indicted 30 officers last month for allegedly allowing, or in some cases arranging, so-called “gladiator fights” between youths for months inside Los Padrinos. A surveillance video first published by The Times in April 2024 showed a group of officers standing by while eight youths took turns attacking one teen, who suffered a broken nose and other injuries. Some officers could be seen laughing and shaking hands with the assailants.
Last week, at least three teens suffered drug overdoses at Los Padrinos. In March, a teen was stabbed in the eye during school hours, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the incident who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. A probation department spokeswoman said the victim suffered only “non-life threatening injuries.”
A 19-year-old also alleged last month that he’d been sexually abused by a 29-year-old Department of Mental Health employee for nearly a year at Los Padrinos, according to court records. His attorney, Jamal Tooson, claimed the abuse was only uncovered when probation officers found explicit pictures sent by the employee during a search of the teen’s room.
Representatives for the probation and mental health departments declined to comment on that incident. It was not clear if a criminal investigation had been opened into the alleged abuse.
Los Padrinos was shut down in 2019 due to a decrease in the number of youth jailed in L.A. County and allegations of excessive force against officers concerning their use of pepper spray. The facility was reopened in July 2023, after the Board of State and Community Corrections shut down L.A. County’s two other juvenile halls.
Within a month, a chaotic incident occurred in which seven youths smashed apart a table and used the pieces as weapons, attacking staff and attempting to break out into the surrounding neighborhood.