Los Angeles County will install airport-style body scanners and increase the use of drug-sniffing canines at its two largest juvenile facilities in response to a series of overdoses and the recent arrest of a tutor accused of smuggling in nearly 200 illicit pills.
The Board of Supervisors voted 4-0, with one abstention, at its meeting Tuesday, July 8, to scale up the security at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall and the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility to better detect and deter drugs.
“Youth in Los Padrinos aren’t even allowed to hug their moms out of fear of drugs or contraband being passed, yet drugs keep getting in,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn, who co-authored the motion, in a statement. “We are failing our youth, we are failing our employees, and every day, we risk losing another life to substance use.”
Last week, the District Attorney’s Office charged Alejandro Lopez, 21, of Downey, and Orlando Cuevas, 18, of Long Beach, with felonies for their respective roles in bringing nearly 200 pills of Xanax into Los Padrinos. Investigators witnessed Lopez handing Cuevas a bundle wrapped in electrical tape containing the pills on June 30.
Two days later, one youth and six staff members at Los Padrinos were taken to the hospital July 2 after the staff members responded to a suspected overdose and were exposed to “an unidentified substance.”
The incidents followed the separate arrest of a probation officer suspected of drug trafficking in early June and three other overdoses in April.
“Our probation department is experiencing a drug and contraband crisis unlike any I’ve ever seen and we need to do all that we can to try and combat it,” Hahn said.
The motion, raised by Hahn and Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, directs the Probation Department to install at least one airport-style body scanner at the entrances of the two facilities and to ensure that everyone who enters, including staff members, goes through it. The department also will be required to have drug-sniffing canines at those entrances “during all hours that staff, contracted providers and visitors are entering the facility,” including during shift changes.
The motion further asks the department to consider restricting employees and contractors from bringing in anything beyond necessities that can be contained within a clear bag and to cancel its contract with Student Nest, the company that employed the tutor accused of smuggling in drugs.
“I believe this sends a strong message to all of the organizations that contract with the county that they are responsible for the actions of their employees and that we will have zero tolerance for this kind of behavior in our facilities,” Hahn said.
During the meeting, Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa told the supervisors his department already is at work on several of the motion’s orders. For example, an airport-style body scanner already has been purchased for Los Padrinos and is awaiting delivery. The department did not buy one for Barry J. Nidorf yet because the installation there would require more construction, he said.
“Probation isn’t sitting back and waiting for this board to intervene,” Viera Rosa said. The probation chief credited the work of a new investigative unit within the department for recent arrests.
Probation already spends more on canines than most other counties, but stopped short of having the dogs check every visitor because Viera Rosa said he did not believe the supervisors would tolerate such heavy restrictions.
“I think that’s a sort of change in what our tolerance level is,” he said.
Following the overdose death of 18-year-old Bryan Diaz in May 2023, L.A. County installed razor wire along Los Padrinos’ perimeter and purchased two Tek84 body scanners, according to a statement in January 2024. However, those scanners were not deployed at either facility’s entrance and instead were used only to “clear youth for transportation or when we suspect they may be concealing an object,” said spokesperson Vicky Waters.
The airport-style body scanners the department now is purchasing are separate.
Los Angeles County has been under intense scrutiny to improve the conditions at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall since shortly after the facility reopened in mid-2023. State regulators ordered the county to empty the facility in December, but the county refused to comply, arguing that it had no alternatives.
The Public Defender’s Office challenged the continued use of Los Padrinos on behalf of its clients and a Superior Court judge, following months of hearings, eventually ordered the county to begin depopulating Los Padrinos as soon as possible by transferring youth to other facilities.
The department has struggled to maintain adequate staffing and had hoped that reducing the population by as much as 100 would allow the facility to stabilize.
That plan, however, hit a major roadblock this week. The Board of State and Community Corrections, the regulatory body responsible for California’s juvenile halls, has found that Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall, which it forced to close in 2023, is still out of compliance with state law and cannot be used to house any of the youth from Los Padrinos.
“It is clear that it would not be appropriate to move additional youth from Los Padrinos to Barry J. Nidorf while the facility is unable to meet minimum standards,” BSCC chair Linda Penner said in a statement. “The ongoing and systemic failures at Los Padrinos and Barry J. Nidorf are unacceptable.”
The failed inspection at Barry J. Nidorf from June 24 to July 1 not only bars L.A. County from reopening the juvenile hall portion of the building, it also puts the Secure Youth Treatment Facility, a separate unit within the building that houses youth sentenced for serious crimes, in the state’s crosshairs as well.
The county now is required to submit a corrective action plan describing how it will bring the SYTF back into compliance within 60 days. Even if L.A. County is able to address the issues at Barry J. Nidorf quickly, the BSCC will not vote on whether to deem the facility “suitable” again until September at the earliest.
Superior Court Judge Miguel Espinoza has ordered L.A. County to appear for a July 18 hearing to update him on the status of depopulating Los Padrinos.
Currently, the population at the juvenile hall has increased from about 270 in May to 298 as of Tuesday.