In leaked tape, probation official says L.A. County could defy order to close juvenile hall
A top L.A. County probation official has said the agency won’t obey a state order to vacate Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall this month, potentially setting up a costly showdown between state and county officials and prompting threats of legal action from defense attorneys.
“We’re not moving,” Chief Deputy Probation Officer Kimberly Epps told a group of several dozen probation officers last month, according to a recording provided to The Times. “You’re going to have to put our stuff on the curb.”
A deadline to shutter the Downey facility had loomed for months, after the California Board of State and Community Corrections found it “unsuitable” to house youth in October. A spokesperson for the state oversight board confirmed Monday that the Probation Department failed a last-chance inspection because it did not have enough officers on site to safely monitor the young people inside.
The board found deficient staffing in a quarter of the 45 shifts officials reviewed at Los Padrinos, according to a summary of the BSCC’s findings reviewed by The Times. The report noted the probation department plans to reduce its juvenile population — but offered no specifics as to how — and criticized the agency for failing to give youths proper programming or exercise time outside of the building.
The probation department refused to say what it would do publicly until Thursday morning, when Epps read a statement from Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa to the L.A. County Probation Oversight Commission confirming the agency’s intentions to defy the state oversight board.
“We respectfully disagree with the findings from BSCC and firmly believe that Los Padrinos is in compliance with state regulations. We have and will continue to provide a safe, secure and rehabilitative environment for all youth in our care,” Epps said, reading from the chief’s statement. “It is vital to note that without an alternative site or plan proposed by our governing agency we are obligated to continue housing and providing care with the young individuals placed with us by the court.”
Like many before him, L.A. County’s newest probation chief has spent his first year on the job desperately trying to get his employees back to work.
The county’s refusal to relocate roughly 260 youths in their teens and early 20s from Los Padrinos could lead to legal battles that would mark another massive liability for an agency already under fire by the California attorney general’s office and facing sex abuse lawsuits anticipated to cost billions of dollars.
“I don’t see how the court in good faith can continue to order youth detained at Los Padrinos when you have the powers that be saying they’re not going to improve conditions and they’re not going to comply with oversight bodies,” said criminal defense attorney Jerod Gunsberg.
Luis Rodriguez, chief of the juvenile division for the L.A. public defender’s office, said in a statement that the agency will ask the courts to move all 107 of its clients from Los Padrinos if the Probation Department doesn’t shut the facility down by Thursday, arguing that continuing to operate the hall after the state’s order violates California law.
“We call for the immediate release of our clients to their families or to non-carceral housing that provide trauma-informed care, access to education, and consistent rehabilitative support,” Public Defender Ricardo Garcia said in a statement. “Every day they remain in an unsuitable facility deepens the harm and undermines their future.”
The Probation Department has long struggled to properly staff its facilities, with officers often refusing to come to work or remaining on medical leave long term, an issue that played a role in the shutdown of the county’s other two juvenile halls in recent years.
The state oversight board gave the Probation Department 60 days to fix the problem or shut the hall. A probation spokesperson said last week that officials were “confident” the county would make the fixes, avoiding a potentially chaotic transfer of detainees to yet another location.
Viera Rosa has said little in public about a potential move, and several defense attorneys said they had received no guidance from the department about what might happen Thursday.
Adding to the confusion, Viera Rosa sent notice last week to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors that he would step down as chief at the end of the year. He reversed that decision on Tuesday after a closed-door meeting with supervisors, but gave no public explanation as to why he changed his mind.
Members of the county’s Probation Oversight Commission were livid after Epps’ appearance at their meeting Thursday morning.
Brooke Harris, executive director of the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center, called Epps’ remarks “outrageous.”
“The chief has resigned and unresigned and then does not come to answer questions, defers to legal counsel, when we all knew this day was coming. And the day is here, and the probation department is not only not sharing what the plan is but … what I heard in the statement is they’re blaming the courts, they’re believing that the BSCC is in error,” she said. “This is just … this is appalling. I don’t know how else to say it.”
Guillermo Viera Rosa’s unexpected departure would cap a 20-month stint during which he failed to reform the troubled agency.
In the recording obtained by The Times, Epps told a group of several dozen probation supervisors that she would not obey any order to vacate the facility.
“If our inspection is not successful we are going to come into compliance where we are,” she said, drawing cheers from some in the room.
Jana Sanford-Miller, a spokesperson for the state oversight board, declined to comment on Epps’ remarks, saying they were “unaware of L.A. County’s plan.”
Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district includes another juvenile hall in Sylmar, said she was “angered and disappointed by the continued failures” of the Probation Department, but the board stands behind Viera Rosa.
“It is my hope that Chief Viera Rosa will use this moment to demonstrate his ability to manage this crisis and implement the reforms that are desperately needed,” Horvath said.
The union that represents rank-and-file probation officers blamed the Board of Supervisors for the ongoing issues, claiming the staffing crisis stems from the supervisors’ unwillingness to fund hiring of more personnel.
“Until the Board of Supervisors prioritizes immediate emergency hiring initiatives and meaningful retention strategies, these crises will persist and jeopardize the safety of both youth and staff,” the union said in a statement.
Epps’ remarks in the leaked audio unnerved one probation official who was present and requested anonymity for fear of retribution within the department.
Progressive district attorneys and advocates who claimed the mantle of criminal justice reform were routed on election day in California. But despite the recent defeats, some reform advocates are confident their movement ‘doesn’t need a rebrand.’
“I definitely have concerns, staff will soon feel they too are invincible and that they can run that place as they see fit,” the probation official said. “They just don’t respect our governing bodies.”
The county’s troubled halls have been a source of frustration for the state for years. The board closed Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar and Central Juvenile Hall in Boyle Heights in the last two years, leading Viera Rosa to reopen Los Padrinos.
But the new facility quickly became as chaotic as the two old ones. In the first month, there was a riot and an escape attempt, and dozens of staff members continued to refuse to report to work. A video surfaced of several officers standing idly by while several youths beat down another teen. Within a year and a half, another shutdown order came.
Vicky Waters, communications director for the Probation Department, said the agency disagrees with the board’s assessment that Los Padrinos needs to be closed.
“We have tried working with the [Board of State and Community Corrections] on viable and aggressive solutions, because this needs to be a collaboration to ensure public safety,” she said in a statement.
Many juvenile justice advocates said the department’s continued spiral into chaos represents a failure of a number of oversight bodies, including the California Department of Justice, which entered into a settlement with the Probation Department to mandate reform in 2021. Little has changed since then.
“This agreement has failed and has failed consistently for years,” said attorney Sean Garcia-Leys, a former member of the L.A. County Probation Oversight Committee. “Having eyes on the situation is not solving it. There’s no shortage of people going into Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall and seeing that it’s unacceptable.”
A spokesperson for Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta declined to say what, if any, action his office could take if Viera Rosa refuses to close Los Padrinos. The spokesperson noted that the state’s settlement with the department places a monitor over all the county’s halls, including Los Padrinos.
Erin Palacios, executive director of the Prisma Legal Center for Youth Justice, said if the department won’t comply with the state’s shutdown order, it should at least work to reduce the population at Los Padrinos, where many detainees are being held awaiting foster care placement or on noncriminal probation violations such as missing school or violating curfew.
“Los Padrinos is a complete shame of a facility for children,” Palacios said. “When you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you should do is stop digging.”
Waters, however, warned that roughly a third of the detainees housed at Los Padrinos are charged with murder, attempted murder, sexual assault or robbery, and could not be “easily released or transferred.”
State regulators appear to have little ability to force the county to follow the order. Counsel for the state board said at a November public meeting that officials were “discussing internally” whether they could sue L.A. County.
“I would fully expect on Dec. 13 that someone — maybe not this Board — will probably file suit,” board member Jeffrey Macomber said. “I fully expect that’s how this would probably play out.”
The board has scheduled an emergency meeting for Dec. 18 to discuss next steps.
Palacios warned that the spiraling conditions at Los Padrinos aren’t merely a danger to the kids inside the Downey facility. Eventually, she said, all of Los Angeles County will pay for it.
“The treatment people receive in there is directly correlated to the treatment we will receive from them when they get out. And they will get out,” she said. “They’re children.”
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