The Probation Department’s rush to reduce the population at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall has left dozens of juvenile offenders at a Sylmar facility without adequate recreational programs and others in Malibu facility without overnight medical care, according to members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
The supervisors lambasted Probation Department official at Tuesday’s meeting in response, with Chair Kathryn Barger calling for the removal of the leadership at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall over what she personally witnessed during unannounced visits.
“I see kids watching TV on a beautiful day, when they should be outside,” said Barger, typically the department’s strongest ally on the board. “When I ask why not, it is because there is no programming in place. It makes my blood boil.”
Recreational activities listed as occurring at Nidorf, which reopened in September, are not actually happening, Barger said. Her comments echoed similar criticism from state regulators last year after inspectors found that surveillance footage at Los Padrinos did not match what was listed on the department’s schedules and activity logs.
“What is being put on paper is a lie,” Barger said Tuesday.
Critics say idleness and boredom in juvenile facilities, combined with the county’s chronic staffing shortages, can lead to increased violence and drug use within the facilities.
“We’ve heard there’s been fights and inconsistent staffing in the unit,” Supervisor Janice Hahn said in reference to the newly reopened juvenile hall side of Nidorf. “And I have concerns with inconsistent staffing on a lot of levels, but we do know it leads to poor rapport with the young, which probably can lead to more fighting.”
Chief Deputy Sheila Williams was unable to provide current numbers on the staffing at Nidorf.
During visits, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath’s staff discovered that one unit holding youth with severe developmental disabilities had programming available only two days a week.
“We have a robust list of programs that are available to the youth,” Williams said in response. “I’m saddened to hear that appears to not be occurring when you actually go out on site, so I will have to get back to you with further information on that.”
“I think the list is robust, the activity is not,” Horvath shot back.
Separately, Horvath brought forward a motion requiring the department to report back verbally at the next meeting and in writing at each subsequent meeting on how it is handling pregnant teens in the department’s custody. Horvath renewed concerns she had previously raised in June after learning that Campus Kilpatrick, which is set to house all girls and gender-expansive youth in the department’s custody, does not yet have overnight medical care available.
The nearest emergency medical center to the juvenile facility located in the Santa Monica Mountains is 15 miles away in Ventura County, or 24 miles away in Los Angeles County, she said. Prenatal and postnatal care for pregnant teens in the county’s custody takes place at L.A. General Medical Center, 45 miles away.
“It feels to me like we’re rushing this move weeks before the necessary staffing will be in place,” Horvath said.
The nurses needed to provide overnight care are not expected to be available until late November or early December, said Christina Ghaly, director of L.A. County Health Services. There are two pregnant girls in the department’s custody and neither has been moved to Kilpatrick yet, officials said.
The Probation Department has moved about 39 boys from Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall to Barry J. Nidorf and about 10 girls to Campus Kilpatrick so far. The moves are part of a court-approved depopulation plan that aims to drop the population at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey to a more manageable level by relocating about 100 youth to the county’s other facilities and camps.
Los Padrinos has been in the crosshairs of the state since it reopened in 2023 and was ordered to close last December.
The county refused to comply and kept the facility open as county officials argued they had no alternative. That defiance spawned two ongoing court battles. One resulted in the depopulation plan, while the other, pushed by the California Department of Justice, seeks to place the county’s entire juvenile system under the control of a court-appointed receiver.
The next hearing in that case is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 7.
The youth moved to Barry J. Nidorf appear to violate state law as that facility — shuttered by the state in 2023 due to the inability to meet basic standards — is still considered “unsuitable” for the confinement of youth. The Board of State and Community Corrections has yet to complete a new inspection of the facility, the first step before the “unsuitable” designation can be removed, but was scheduled to begin that process after Monday, Nov. 3.
The Probation Department has been struggling to stabilize its staffing for years now. At Tuesday’s meeting, Williams, the chief deputy, presented statistics on the department’s efforts to recruit new officers. Probation received 4,353 applications so far in 2025 and has offered jobs to 1,161 people.
Only about 9.5% passed background checks, down from 25.9% in 2023 and 17.3% in 2024. So far, there have been 53 total hires in 2025, about half of the previous year.
Williams attributed the slowdown to the department’s more stringent requirements in the hopes of weeding out applicants that ultimately won’t stick around. That may be working. The department’s turnover rate — measuring how many people leave within a year of completing the academy — dropped from nearly 60% in 2024 to 20% in the first three quarters 2025, according to the presentation.
Probation is offering hefty signing bonuses of $24,000 to $48,000 to incentive lateral transfers who will need less time and onboarding before they can be deployed to one of the facilities.
The slow hiring and the department’s lack of progress on depopulating Los Padrinos makes it clear the county will not be able to “staff our way into compliance,” Horvath said. Los Padrinos’ population grew over the summer and now, even once the moves are complete, it is unlikely to hit a population goal of 175. The facility held about 260 youth as of Oct. 29.
The department is still moving forward with the depopulation plan, reviewing its intake process and working with community partners for placements outside of the system, according to Williams. But she noted the review has not found youth are being detained excessively, despite advocates and some of the supervisors arguing otherwise.
Placements also have been challenging because some partners aren’t willing to take youth from Los Padrinos, she added.
On top of Horvath’s motion, Barger offered her own informal direction to Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa, who was absent from the meeting to prepare for Friday’s court hearing, to make his own unannounced visits to his facilities at least one per month so he can see first hand what is happening.
If asking isn’t enough, “I will order that to occur,” she warned.
Horvath and Hahn both noted that the board previously ordered Viera Rosa to be on-site at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall once per week. Hahn said “her spies” indicate that isn’t happening.
“It just feels like we’re all sort of dragging Probation along, and we’re not getting the leadership we need and want and those young people deserve,” Hahn said.