Judge blocks juvenile halls takeover bid

Court says state did not meet criteria to take control of the L.A. County facilities.

- JAMES QUEALLY

STATE Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta was stopped from taking over juvenile halls.

A judge temporarily blocked California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s attempt to take over Los Angeles County’s beleaguered juvenile halls on Friday, finding that despite evidence of a “systemic failure” to improve poor conditions, Bonta had not met the legal grounds necessary to strip away local control.

After years of scandals — including frequent drug overdoses and incidents of staff violence against youths — Bonta filed a motion in July to place the county's juvenile halls in “receivership,” meaning a court-appointed monitor would manage the facilities, set their budgets and oversee the hiring and firing of staff. An ongoing staffing crisis previously led a state oversight body to deem two of L.A. County’s halls unfit to house children.

L.A. County entered into a settlement with the California Department of Justice in 2021 to mandate improvements, but oversight bodies and a Times investigation earlier this year found the Probation Department was falling far short of fixing many issues, as required by the agreement.

On Friday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Peter A. Hernandez chastised Bonta for failing to clearly lay out tasks for the Probation Department to abide by in the 2021 settlement. Hernandez said the attorney general's office's filings failed to show that a state takeover would lead to "a transformation of the juvenile halls." The steps the Probation Department needs to take to meet the terms of the settlement have been articulated in court filings and reports published by the L.A.

County Office of the Inspector General for several years.

Hernandez was assigned to oversee the settlement only in recent months and spent much of Friday's hearing complaining about a lack of "clarity" in the case.