Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey remains on lockdown in aftermath of riot

Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey remained on lockdown Saturday after 13 detainees assaulted guards, breached their units and attempted to escape by scaling the perimeter walls of the sprawling 66-year-old Los Angeles County facility, officials said.

The turmoil occurred about 8 p.m. Friday, according to county probation department officials, who managed to quell the disturbance several hours later with assistance from law enforcement officers — many of them in riot gear — and emergency responders from across the region. A sheriff’s helicopter provided aerial support.

To bolster security, Interim Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa has ordered that pepper spray be temporarily issued to all permanent staff until the facility is fully stabilized, a decision he will revisit in a few days.

Friday night’s disturbance, he said, “was an emergency that required an immediate and strong response.”

“I’m thankful that no youth were seriously hurt,” he added, “and with the help of other law enforcement agencies we were able to reestablish order.”

One of the youths managed to climb over the wall during the disturbance, Viera Rosa said, but was apprehended in an adjacent golf course a short time later by the county Probation Department’s Special Enforcement Operations team.

Because he is 18, officials said, authorities have asked the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department to book him as an adult, officials said.

The other 12 youths have been placed in individual rooms at Los Padrinos under one-on-one supervision, officials said. No serious injuries to youth or staff were reported, and a head count found that all 273 youths held at the facility were accounted for.

The incident occurred when seven youths assaulted staff with pieces of broken furniture and opened an exterior door of their living unit, sources told the Times. They then broke the window of an adjacent unit, allowing six others to join them on the facility grounds.

Downey Police and Fire departments, South Gate Police Department and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department responded with assistance. A sheriff’s helicopter provided air support.

On Saturday, Viera Rosa asked Michael Minor, a private security consultant and former director of the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation Division of Juvenile Justice, to work with staff as it investigates the cause of the disturbance and stabilizes operations at the facility that has been mired in scandal and health and safety violations for more than three decades.

“It is my understanding that all the youth have been accounted for,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a written statement.

“I expect our interim Chief Probation Officer to get to the bottom of what went wrong,” she added, “and make assurances to the Board of Supervisors and the City of Downey that this is not going to happen again.”

Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall closed in 2019, two months after prosecutors charged six officers who worked there with assault for the dousing of teenage girls with pepper spray.

This month, the Probation Department moved about 270 juveniles held in Central Juvenile Hall in downtown Los Angeles and Barry J. Nidorf Hall in Sylmar to Los Padrinos, as the troubled agency tries to right itself after years of disarray.