The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors voted for an emergency declaration preventing the closure of Los Padrinos, the county’s last remaining juvenile detention facility. Such emergencies are normally declared after natural disasters, giving the county far more power to quickly secure needed resources.

In this case the board issued its emergency order after the California Board of State and Community Corrections ordered closure of Los Padrinos. It found the county had failed to demonstrate its ability to adequately and competently house about 240 juveniles in that facility. It was the threat posed that caused Supervisors Solis and Barger to issue a proclamation resisting closure. It argued that “compliance with the order of closure will mean the immediate release of minors accused of serious and violent crimes, including murder, robbery and rape and will … put the community in extreme peril.”

If Supervisor Solis considers that closure of Los Padrinos places the residents of L.A. County in peril, then one is mystified by why she has consistently promoted the closure of Men’s Central Jail without a replacement. The jail contains more than 3,500 adult male inmates, the vast majority of whom have committed or are accused of committing serious and violent felonies, with prior histories of serious offenses.

Prior boards agreed decades ago that the aging and outdated Men’s Central Jail had to be replaced. Recommendations were sought from experts in the field and the decision was made in 2015 to build a Consolidated Custodial Treatment Facility that could provide constitutionally adequate mental health treatment and housing. At the same time, the county agreed to a Federal Consent Decree to ensure that constitutional standards would be reached and maintained in existing jail facilities.

Plans for replacing Men’s Central Jail were well underway when in 2019 Supervisor Solis led an effort, supported by organized groups of activists, to end the plans to construct a jail replacement facility with the cry, “You can’t get well in a cell”. In 2020, Solis called for the shutdown of MCJ within a year without a replacement. In 2021 she joined Supervisor Kuehl in calling to shut Men’s Central Jail as soon as possible and saying that there was no need for further debate on the issue ... no need for a jail replacement — case closed. She claimed thousands of inmates could be safely diverted to non-carceral treatment facilities that would allow closure of Men’s Central Jail. County staff were directed to create the plan to do so. Finally, in 2023, Supervisor Solis joined newly elected Supervisor Horvath in calling for the immediate shutdown of MCJ on “humanitarian grounds.” During the entire time Supervisor Solis called for MCJ closure she never warned of the dangers and great peril to her constituents if thousands of dangerous and violent inmates were released. She never acknowledged the need for first providing an adequate, safe and constitutional alternative to housing thousands of violent felons, a vast number suffering serious mental illness.

The idea that the closure could safely occur through diversion has been repeatedly repudiated by knowledgeable participants in the county’s criminal justice system, most recently by Sheriff Robert Luna’s office. Solis’ goal of closing Men’s Central Jail without an appropriate replacement should be dismissed as the dangerous delusion it is.

Shouldn’t Supervisor Solis and other members of the Board explain why they believe releasing 200 juveniles will place their constituents in great danger and peril, while releasing thousands of adult hardcore criminals from Men’s Central Jail will not?

The board must replace Men’s Central Jail with a constitutionally compliant facility. The supervisors have the obligation to provide inmates housing and treatment they are entitled to. Eventually Men’s Central Jail must close. It will either be replaced, or the supervisors will be responsible for placing Angelenos in extreme peril. No longer should Solis and her colleagues be allowed to claim that there are safe and sufficient alternatives to incarceration for the thousands now residing in MCJ accused and convicted of violent and serious crimes.

South Pasadenan Joseph Charney is a former county deputy district attorney.