By Yana Singhal
LOS ANGELES, CA – Although ordered by the county supervisors to stop, officers at a juvenile hall here continue to use pepper spray on a daily basis on the incarcerated, according to a recent article by Los Angeles Daily News.
The newspaper reported when “Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall reopened in July 2023, probation officers arriving for their first shifts were forced to surrender the pepper spray canisters they had relied on to combat fights and unruly youth at other juvenile facilities.”
The Probation Oversight Commission “saw Los Padrinos as a chance to finally implement a long-delayed directive from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to stop using oleoresin capsicum [OC} spray, commonly known as pepper spray…in the juvenile halls.”
However, the pepper spray “ban” only lasted a mere two weeks, said the Daily News, noting when “13 teens broke out of their units on the night of July 28, 2023…Police officers in riot gear swarmed the facility to help restore order. The next day, Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa temporarily issued pepper spray to all permanent staff at Los Padrinos ‘until the facility is fully stabilized,’ but pledged to revisit the decision promptly.”
Since then, a report shows pepper spray is used “an average of 1.3 times per day” and used in “house vulnerable populations, including girls and youth with developmental disabilities, against the Board of Supervisors’ orders.”
According to the article, many blame “a lack of training in deescalation tactics and a punitive culture among officers for Los Padrinos’ reliance on pepper spray” while others “argue it is a necessary tool to prevent violence from escalating amid a staffing shortage that has left officers without backup.”
The Daily News writes that in July, 2023, “the Probation Department consolidated the majority of its detained juveniles at the newly reopened Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey,” and following an escape attempt “pepper spray usage quadrupled” and “has largely stayed at those levels since.”
Despite the article stating, “Probation is now developing a new phase-out plan, its third attempt in five years,” it seems that this plan may not be working.
With a second escape attempt, there’s been an increase in officers being placed on leave creating “a domino effect whereby additional officers skip work because the low staffing levels make the halls less safe and holdovers more likely” where the article notes how, “In May, half of the 791 staff members assigned to juvenile institutions were on leave.”
Viera Rosa, former interim chief of the Probation Department. sent a memo to the Board of Supervisors in June indicating to the Daily News “the department is unable to determine the ‘percentage of trained staff’ in each unit at Los Padrinos because ongoing staffing shortages force the department to constantly shuffle people around.”
The Daily News wrote 85 percent of the pepper spray use was to combat “attacks against other youth or against staff.”
The LA Daily News adds, “The department’s monitoring for misuse of pepper spray has faced criticism in the past,” with 3/31 of OC spray incidents being in compliance with policy after the LA County Office looked at reports in February 2024.
The Daily News reports Aditi Sherikar, a senior policy associate with the Children’s Defense Fund California, blames the “Board of Supervisors for failing to enforce its prior motions ordering the department to stop using pepper spray.”
In the same article, Ricardo Garcia, Los Angeles County’s public defender, called the use of OC spray in juvenile halls “cruel and inhumane. It compounds trauma, contradicting principles of rehabilitation, care, and youth development. We need to emphasize alternative approaches that prioritize the well-being of all those in our detention centers.”
Sean Garcia-Leys, co-executive director of the Peace and Justice Law Center and a former probation oversight commissioner comments is quoted as stating, “The bottom line is that Los Padrinos continues to be a violent, unsafe place for youth and staff.”
Garcia-Leys added in the Daily News, “If you compare Los Padrinos to the camps, or the SYTF facilities, you can see that sort of foundation for safety can be built, because we’ve done it in other facilities…the county’s best solution is to reduce the population at Los Padrios to a manageable level.”
The LA Daily Times writes those opposing the use of pepper spray in the county’s juvenile halls include, “County Supervisors Janice Hahn, Lindsey Horvath, Holly Mitchell and Hilda Solis,”
Solis, said the newspaper, “brought forward a motion in 2022 to end the use of OC spray against girls, gender expansive youth and youth with developmental disabilities, stating that it only ‘perpetuates and exacerbates trauma and harm.’”
Solis said the program is still in the process of getting its bearings “with the continued pressure from the Board for a full elimination of OC spray and the continued training of staff, we will push to ensure the Department takes steps to lean on other tools and end the practice of utilizing OC spray.”
