As L.A. County moves youths out of troubled juvenile halls, will anything change?

Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey was shut down in 2019 after six probation officers were charged with assaulting teenagers. The last time Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall housed some of Los Angeles County’s most troubled youths, it was mired in scandal and pegged as obsolete. But later this month Los Padrinos will reopen — something of a last resort after a state oversight board ordered most youths out of L.A. County’s two remaining juvenile facilities following a staffing crisis, reports of a long decline in conditions and the death of an 18-year-old from an apparent drug overdose. Fesia Davenport, the county’s chief executive officer, told supervisors last month that a $117-million renovation was taking place at “breakneck speed.” California 18-year-old dies of overdose in L.A. County juvenile hall, as state suggests shutdown An 18-year-old was found dead of an overdose Tuesday in an L.A. County juvenile hall, just weeks after a county report raised alarms about the facility. The Los Padrinos complex consists of 36 buildings occupying 26 acres, though only a few structures will be used to house youths, according to Karla Tovar, the Probation Department’s head of communications.