LOS ANGELES – Yesterday, the LA County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to fill juvenile hall staffing vacancies with reserve LA sheriff’s deputies. In ongoing litigation Rutherford v Luna and Rosas v Baca, it is clear LASD is unable to provide basic, humane care for people under their custody.
The Board of Supervisors also voted today to reopen Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, which was closed in 2017, and is among the many facilities that has a long and documented history of officers abusing young people that spanned multiple decades.
The following can be attributed to Melissa Camacho, Senior Staff Attorney at ACLU SoCal:
“The LA County Board of Supervisors decision to assign reserve deputies to the juvenile halls is not the care first philosophy the board has long promised.
Already, we're suing the sheriff's department for its failure to provide adequate care or safety to people in our jails. It's therefore shameful and dangerous to think that reserve deputies--with absolutely no training to take care of children-- can care for youth in detention.”