Young people at the newly reopened Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall are once again urinating in bags, plastic gloves and the corners of their rooms because there is not enough staff to escort them to the restroom overnight, according to court testimony.

That exact issue contributed to the state’s decision to close Nidorf in 2023 and was supposed to have been resolved when Los Angeles County consolidated that same year at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, where more rooms have sinks and toilets installed.

But Los Padrinos, facing its own crisis, is now subject to a depopulation plan that has shuffled about 40 boys back to Barry J. Nidorf without the state’s permission. The Sylmar facility is still considered “unsuitable” under the law until it passes a new inspection, which isn’t expected to take place until December.

Brett Peterson, who serves as the deputy monitor overseeing compliance with a court-approved settlement agreement between the state Department of Justice and L.A. County, testified in court Friday, Nov. 21, that the move back to Barry J. Nidorf has not gone smoothly.

The first few weeks after the move in September saw an uptick in fighting, according to Peterson. More recently, a teacher was attacked by three students in a classroom at Barry J. Nidorf on Nov. 18 and, according to L.A. County Superintendent of Schools Debra Duardo, no probation officer was present at the time.

Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa described that as concerning during a Board of Supervisors meeting, but a spokesperson for the department later stated that “probation officers are not required to be present during class instruction, but are committed to working with our education partners on any needed action to ensure the safety and security of both youth and staff.”

“While no serious injuries were reported, we take this incident very seriously and we are currently investigating,” said Vicky Waters, the department’s spokesperson, in a statement.

In the last month, youth at Nidorf have reported — and Peterson has confirmed — that their knocks and yells for escorts to the restroom during overnight shifts have gone unanswered.

“I’ve had reports of youth urinating in their rooms at night from multiple units,” Peterson testified.

The deputy monitor, who is a witness in a court hearing that could result in a state takeover of L.A. County’s juvenile system, checked surveillance footage and saw at least one youth carrying a bag of what appeared to be urine out of his room the next morning.

Peterson raised the issue with the leadership of the Los Angeles County Probation Department. An email went out to staff reminding them of their responsibilities and warning them of possible discipline if it continued. The department also pledged to do random video audits, ordered staff conducting searches to check for bags and gloves, and referred officers found to have fallen asleep during overnight shifts to internal affairs, according Robert Dugdale, the county’s attorney.

Yet Peterson continued to hear that youth urinating in their rooms is a “regular occurrence.” Last week, one youth told him that staff even provided the gloves for that specific purpose.

“If that is true, it is really concerning,” the deputy monitor said.

Inspectors with the Board of State and Community Corrections called out youth urinating in their rooms at Barry J. Nidorf and at Los Padrinos during the board’s decisions to close those facilities. L.A. County did close Barry J. Nidorf in 2023, but has refused to shut down Los Padrinos in defiance of the state’s order, a move that highlighted the BSCC’s complete lack of teeth when it comes to enforcing its closure orders.

Since then, the county reopened Barry J. Nidorf and moved some of its girls to Campus Kilpatrick in the Santa Monica Mountains, without bothering to wait for the BSCC’s approval. A judge in a separate case related to the refusal to close Los Padrinos accepted a plan earlier this year to reduce the population at Los Padrinos to a more manageable level by shifting portions of its populations to other facilities.

Peterson, the former director of juvenile justice in Utah, joined the court-appointed monitor’s team in the Department of Justice’s case in July and now spends much of his week inside L.A. County’s various juvenile facilities. The monitoring team, led by Michael Dempsey, is tracking hundreds of reforms the county is supposed to make as part of the settlement agreement dating back to 2021.

The attorney general’s office, fed up with the county’s failure to comply with 75% of the terms over the last four years, asked a judge to place the juvenile system under a receivership and install Dempsey as the receiver. So far, Judge Peter Hernandez has denied that request, instead opting to hear testimony from both sides while he weighs how to proceed.

The hearings, which began in October, are expected to continue into the new year.

During the Friday hearing, Deputy Attorney General Shannon Kitten used Peterson’s testimony to flag the county’s continued failure to properly staff its juvenile halls and the impact that has on the youth locked up inside. Dempsey previously told the court that while L.A. County is able to hit mandated staffing ratios consistently, the poor utilization of that staff has led gaps in coverage.

Peterson continued where his boss left off, detailing examples in which he has personally witnessed units with only one officer supervising more than a dozen youth, while no one was manning the “control room,” which can act as a failsafe for calling for help in the event an incident does occur.

While this meets a mandated ratio of 1 to 16, the lack of backup for the officer makes it more difficult to safely provide required services, such as restroom breaks, Peterson said. The department’s own policy requires two officers to be present during interactions with youth.

One unit, which is split into two sides with a control room in between, should have three officers overnight, Peterson said, but currently has one only officer on each side and no backup to assist them.

“You can’t do that with two,” he said. “The math doesn’t math.”

That hasn’t changed since Peterson raised concerns about youth urinating in their rooms, he testified. That type of razor-thin staffing makes it so that small, but common disruptions that pull officers elsewhere — a youth needing transportation to school or a medical visit or a fight breaking out in a nearby unit — can create dangerous ripple effects, he said.

Peterson recalled one visit to Los Padrinos when he entered a unit and all other staff left, leaving him and his escort — an administrator — alone with the youth. During another visit, he saw one female officer, noticeably on edge, supervising 13 youth, a violation of the 1-to-8 ratio required during the daytime.

“They pretty much have to have their back against the wall,” he said.

Still, Peterson has noticed improvements since the court hearings began. More cameras have been installed and are now monitored in real time, he said. Body scanners are now being used to screen everyone, including staff, for contraband.

The department is responding to the monitor’s requests more promptly and there is a “greater sense of urgency” to get into compliance, he said. The frequent graffiti and unclean environments seen months ago are rare now.

Related links

• Judge approves LA County’s plan to reform Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall
• State orders LA County to close juvenile halls within 60 days
• State moves to take over troubled LA County juvenile halls
• Judge rejects state bid to place LA County juvenile halls in receivership, for now
• LA County moves 39 youths from from one ‘unsuitable’ juvenile hall to another