Supervisors Order 100 Juvenile Hall Inmates Moved to Jails

Deciding that security is inadequate at juvenile halls for more than 100 teenagers accused of adult crimes, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed their transfer to adult jails.

Supervisors acted after learning of security lapses at Central Juvenile Hall, where three teenagers, including two convicted murderers, escaped July 31 armed with a gun.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich proposed sending the additional juveniles to join 42 minors, most of them accused of violent crimes such as murder and attempted murder, who are already in county jails.

Officials of the county Probation Department, which runs the juvenile detention facilities, said Tuesday that they welcome the move of “unfit minors.” Those charged with serious offenses are much more likely to try to escape because they face lengthy prison sentences, officials said.

“Our facilities are secure, but they don’t match the county jails,” Chief Probation Officer Richard Shumsky told supervisors.

Any transfer, most likely to the Lynwood Justice Center, is contingent on funding and approval by the presiding juvenile judge, officials said.

Chief Bob Hoffman, head of the Sheriff’s Department custody operations, which run the massive jail system, said the Lynwood facility is available. “We’ve been forced to release inmates on [lesser] charges because of budget constraints, so we won’t be taking anyone else without compensation,” he said.

Reviewing the July 31 escape from Central Juvenile Hall in Lincoln Heights, probation officials found several security shortcomings, including inadequate use of metal detectors, trees that aid escapees and a ladder left accessible to those in custody.

“Any time there has been an escape, there have been lapses,” Shumsky told supervisors.

In the July incident, Jose Argueta, 17, convicted in the execution-style murder of a gang rival, asked guards to release him from a locked room in a special housing unit for the most violent inmates so he could get a drink of water. Once outside he produced a .45-caliber handgun and forced three guards to release convicted murderer Marvin Sandoval, 17, and convicted carjacker Fernando Nupiri, 18.

After locking the guards in a utility room, the three--who authorities say are all gang members--fled to an outside yard and used a 5-foot ladder from a utility closet placed on a 3-foot tree stump to climb to a rooftop. They then scaled a perimeter wall and descended to the street using bedsheets as ropes. They remain at large.

The key question, said Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, is “How did a gun get in there?”

Shumsky said he won’t know until one of the escapees is captured.

Supervisors also directed probation officials to work to relocate medical treatment to within juvenile halls. Just days after the three escaped, 16-year-old Steven Frazier fled from custody while at County-USC Medical Center for a medical appointment. His guard violated policy by letting Frazier move out of sight, officials said.

Since those escapes, Shumsky said, security has been tightened. No one in juvenile facilities is allowed to carry a gun. Everyone entering, including staff members, must pass a metal detector. And bags are randomly searched.

The report on security quoted staff at Central Juvenile Hall, which houses about 600 inmates, as describing the metal detector there as “unreliable.” At Sylmar Juvenile Hall, “alarms that sound are commonly ignored,” according to the report.

The report also said probation officials had failed to operate some closed circuit surveillance cameras, failed to install motion detectors on rooftops and conducted inadequate searches.