Nine people were hospitalized Wednesday morning because of possible drug exposure inside Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, officials said.<\/p>\n
Vicky Waters, the communications director for the L.A. County Probation Department, which oversees the juvenile halls, said the hospitalizations were due to \u201ca suspected overdose and possible exposure to an unidentified substance\u201d which occurred around 8 a.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Officers deployed Narcan, a nasal spray commonly used to reverse the impacts of an opiate overdose, to those who were exposed, Waters said. <\/p>\n
Eight staff members and one youth in custody were affected, but all remain in stable condition, according to Waters. Some have already been released from the hospital. <\/p>\n
Los Padrinos was still on \u201clockdown,\u201d meaning youths were confined to their rooms and visitation is suspended, as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Waters. <\/p>\n
Downey police and fire officials responded to the hall, as well as hazardous materials crews, according to Waters. <\/p>\n
Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose district includes Los Padrinos, said she was praying for the recovery of the youth and staff, which included both probation and medical personnel. <\/p>\n
\u201cYouth in our care, Probation staff, and medical staff were all possibly exposed to and sickened by a toxic drug that should never have been able to enter this facility,\u201d said Hahn in a statement. \u201cWe will get to the bottom of how this was allowed to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The latest incident comes amid ongoing issues with drugs in the county\u2019s juvenile halls. <\/p>\n
On Monday, Alejandro Lopez, an employee for a nonprofit tutoring company, was arrested at Los Padrinos and allegedly found in possession of 170 pills believed to be Xanax.<\/a> The Los Angeles County District Attorney charged both Lopez, 21, and Orlando Cuevas, 18, Wednesday with possessing Xanax for sale. <\/p>\n The probation department said Lopez works for StudentNest, a Fresno-based tutoring service.<\/p>\n Last month, L.A. prosecutors charged a probation officer with smuggling Xanax <\/a>into the Secure Youth Treatment Facility at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar. Several youths also suffered drug overdoses at Los Padrinos in April, not long after probation officials found a large quantity of Xanax inside the facility. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re starting to catch people,\u201d said Eduardo Mundo, head of the Probation Oversight Commission, which serves as a county watchdog for the troubled department. \u201cWhen you catch someone, it means the process is working.\u201d<\/p>\n Mundo said he\u2019d seen security at the hall tighten lately, with dogs sniffing all who enter from top to bottom and more attention paid to the sky scouting for drones. And yet, he notes, clearly drugs are still getting in. <\/p>\n \u201cThe people who do bring drugs in… they\u2019re having to be pretty creative,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Los Padrinos remains the subject of major scrutiny by state and county officials. In May, a judge ordered more than 100 youths to be moved out of the Downey hall<\/a> after the facility repeatedly failed investigations carried out by a state oversight body. <\/p>\n