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When Los Angeles County’s two juvenile halls repeatedly flunked inspections over the last three years, the Probation Department simply reopened a previously closed hall and moved its nearly 300 detained youths there. The sleight of hand restarted the inspection clock, bought the county some time and allowed officials to pretend that the problem they were solving was a collection of outdated buildings that weren’t up to the task of safely and securely housing young people accused of serious crimes.
But the facilities were never the problem. LA County can’t safely operate any juvenile hall because a shockingly large percentage of its probation workforce simply stays home on any given day rather than showing up for their shifts, the inspector general’s office reported last year.
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