Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall Is Up and Running as Youths from Central Move In

LOS ANGELES — The LA County Probation Department July 13 officially vacated Central Juvenile Hall after moving all predisposition youth from the aging facility to its reopened Los Padrinos campus in Downey.

The department began moving groups of youths from Central July 12. The first phase consisted of 87 youth, with the second phase of 86 youth settling in at Los Padrinos shortly after 10 p.m. July 13. 

With two releases, there are now 171 youth in all at Los Padrinos, part of a three-month effort to shift all conventional juvenile operations to the reopened campus.

“It’s official — Los Padrinos is now a functioning juvenile hall and Central no longer houses youth,” said LA County’s Interim Chief Probation Officer Guillermo Viera Rosa. 

Viera Rosa said the department will now “evaluate the stability of the situation” before deciding when to move predisposition youth to Los Padrinos from Barry J. Nidorf Hall by July 23.

Once that is complete, Barry J. Nidorf will no longer house predisposition youth — individuals who face charges as minors and are awaiting disposition of their cases — and all such operations will be fully consolidated at Los Padrinos, marking what Viera Rosa said will be a “new day” for the department.

“Vacating Central this quickly, safely and smoothly has required incredible effort and coordination with our partners in other County departments,” Viera Rosa said. “It just shows what the County can do when everyone, from the Board of Supervisors down to the newest probation officer, pulls together.”

The move from Central beats a deadline set by the Board of State and Community Corrections or BSCC to close the facility down by July 23 because it is considered “unsuitable” for juvenile operations. The BSCC set the same deadline for the closure of Barry J. Nidorf, which it also deemed unsuitable.

The County Supervisors voted May 2 to approve a plan by Viera Rosa to shift all pre-disposition operations to Los Padrinos, initiating an effort by multiple county departments to prepare the facility, which was closed in 2019. Work crews put in 16 hours a day at Los Padrinos repairing fixtures; installing floors, pipes, and cameras; upgrading the kitchen; and repainting the interior.

Last Friday, the BSCC officially declared portions of Los Padrinos suitable as a juvenile hall, in preparation for this week’s move from Central. After the move from Barry J. Nidorf, youth will occupy nine living units on the 26-acre Downey campus. They will also have access to school rooms, a gym, recreational fields and a swimming pool.

Viera Rosa said consolidating juvenile operations at Los Padrinos will also help boost staffing numbers, which suffered at both Central and Barry J. Nidorf, compromising safety and leading to the curtailment of youth programming and classes.

More than 360 full-duty Probation officers will be reassigned to Los Padrinos, enough to establish safe staff-to-youth ratios and restore services and programming for youth.