Los Angeles County’s troubled juvenile halls get reprieve, can remain open after improvements

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County’s troubled juvenile detention facilities, on the verge of shutting down over safety issues and other problems, can remain open, state regulators decided Thursday.

The Board of State and Community Corrections voted to lift its “unsuitable” designation for Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar and Central Juvenile Hall in Boyle Heights.

Both facilities could have been forced to shut down April 16 because of failed inspections over the past year.

The state board, which inspects the youth prisons, determined last year that the county had been unable to correct problems including inadequate safety checks, low staffing, use of force and a lack of recreation and exercise.

Board chair Linda Penner said while the county had made some improvements, officials should not consider the outcome of the vote “mission accomplished,” the Southern California News Group reported.

“Your mission now is sustainability and durability. We need continued compliance,” Penner said.

Only six of the 13 board members supported keeping the lockups open. Three voted against it, saying they did not believe Los Angeles County could maintain improvements at the facilities long-term. The other four abstained or recused themselves.

Board members warned the county that if future inspections result in an unsuitable designation, they would not hesitate to close the facilities.

The Los Angeles County Probation Department, which oversees the juvenile halls, said it was stabilizing staffing levels and improving training procedures. Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa said his department acknowledges “the ongoing concerns and acknowledge there’s still much more to be done.”

The Peace and Justice Law Center, which advocates for prison reform, said the juvenile halls need “real fixes, not temporary Band-Aids.” Co-Execuitve Director Sean Garcia-Leys told the news group that the nonprofit plans to conduct a private audit to try to determine “why the board has reversed itself and decided a few weeks of compliance with standards outweigh the years of failure to meet minimum standards.”

The board’s decision comes after California phased out its three remaining state-run youth prisons and shifting the responsibility to counties.

The shift to local control is the final step in a lengthy reform effort driven in part by a class-action lawsuit and incentives for counties to keep youths out of the state system. The state-run system has a troubled history marked by inmate suicides and brawls.