One year ago, state regulators, fed up with Los Angeles County’s repeated failure to maintain minimum standards for juveniles in its custody, took the nearly unprecedented step of ordering the county’s largest juvenile hall to close its doors indefinitely until improvements could be made.

The decision, made once before in the history of that state regulatory body, came at a time when L.A. County claimed it had no alternatives left and sparked questions about what would happen to the hundreds of detainees at the time. Would potentially dangerous youth get released onto the streets? Would it jump-start long-promised, but slow-to-implement reforms to the county’s juvenile justice system?

As the anticipated closure date of Dec. 12, 2024, approached, advocates, defense attorneys and public de

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