State regulators voted Tuesday to find Los Angeles County’s troubled youth halls “unfit,” an unprecedented decision that will force the county to quickly evict nearly 300 youth from its troubled facilities.

The unanimous vote by the Board of State and Community Corrections gives the county two months to remove the juveniles housed at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar and Central Juvenile Hall in Boyle Heights from those facilities.

The move ends a years-long back-and-forth between the LA County Probation Department, which oversees the halls, and the state board, which inspects them.

The board deemed the halls unsuitable for the first time in 2021, a step it had never taken before, but repeatedly gave probation officers the chance to meet minimum requirements again. The board delayed a decision to close the halls in April, angering youth advocates who said the department had been given far too many second, third and fourth chances.

The board decided on Tuesday that it was done with giving extensions.

The time has come to take an extremely difficult step, said board chair Linda Penner.

State regulators have uncovered numerous problems within the two facilities.

Due to an acute personnel crisis, there were not enough officers on duty to let youths out of their rooms, let alone out into the fresh air. Those same restrictions have led to the cancellation of family visits, limited or non-existent schooling, or even access to therapy. These are all issues that lawyers, staff and youths in custody say have led to increased fighting and deteriorating mental health for detainees.

Conditions within the facilities have worsened as violent incidents and overdoses have increased. A teen was found dead of an apparent overdose earlier this month, the first time a young person has died in a juvenile facility since 2010, according to a county spokesperson.

Regulators will formally inform the county on Wednesday that it has 60 days to move the approximately 280 youth currently in probation custody. The county said it plans to move them to the currently closed Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, which closed in 2019 amid reduced population and allegations of staff abuse.

A team of advisers working for the province had pleaded with state regulators to give the province 150 days so it could transfer the youths to Los PadrinPadrinos with as little disruption as possible.

This shortened timeline is bound to add to a degree of chaos and confusion, said Margarita Perez, a former assistant probation department chief who represented the county at the meeting. It will also create a logistical nightmare for the province.

The probation department was accused last year of conducting a hasty transfer of youths from Central to Nidorf to avoid criticism during an ongoing inspection by state regulators. The chaotic, poorly planned move led to violence, injuries, and eventually a reprimand from the LA County Office of the Inspector General.

County counselors struck a deferential tone on Tuesday when they begged regulators to give them more time while acknowledging that Central and Nidorf were unsuitable for housing youth. Perez said the department clearly, clearly, clearly understood that changes were long overdue and recognized that the county was asking for a lot.

The board declined, appearing to be tired of various promises made by a rotating cast of parole board leaders.

“It’s a plan that’s long overdue,” said board member Kirk Haynes, Fresno County’s probation officer.

“Your concerns about the disruption of moving youth are outweighed by our concerns about the disruption they currently live in,” said Tulare County Chief Probation Officer Kelly Vernon. Every possible extension has already been made.

Over the past two years, the state administration has repeatedly determined that the two juvenile detention centers did not comply with state regulations. Last month, the province got another chance. After a lengthy meeting where senior county officials pleaded with regulators for more time, regulators postponed an expected vote on a closure, citing efforts by the county to correct course. Among other promises, the county said it would transfer 100 deputy probation officers to the chronically cramped wards.

Inspectors say the promise of rapid reform has never materialized.

In a memo from top staff at the Board of State and Community Corrections, regulators said they could not confirm that 100 deputy probation officers had been transferred. And staff still regularly called for their shifts, forcing officers already on duty to tend to them and exacerbating the staffing crisis.

Between April 10 and April 28, regulators found 34 employees who had worked 24-hour shifts at Nidorf. Inspectors found that young people were still getting few programs, with many people huddled around TVs blaring on YouTube. Young people still reported that they sometimes urinated in a container in their room because no one came to take them out to go to the toilet.

There is no measurable progress toward compliance, regulators wrote.

The regulators’ decision to largely close the halls came after intense pressure from youth advocate organizations, which accused the board of evading its legal responsibility and ignoring legal deadlines by consistently giving the county extra time.

In a letter to the board on Monday, lawyers from the Center for Youth Justice and the Center for Peace and Justice said they would sue if it didn’t vote to find the halls unsuitable.

The vote will not lead to a complete closure of Nidorf. The 83 youths housed in the Secure Youth Track Facility, who have been charged with more serious and violent crimes, will remain there. The state board has no control over these secure facilities, which were set up as a sort of replacement for the state’s juvenile justice department after it closed late next month.

Found dead of an apparent overdose, the 18-year-old was housed in Nidorf’s secure facility, nicknamed “the Compound.” Two sources told The Times the teen was dead hours before officers found him, despite mandatory nighttime security checks.

At least two other youths transferred from state prison to Nidorf’s secure rail facility had also overdosed earlier this year, according to court documents reviewed by The Times and reports from the Inspector General’s Office. According to the reports, youths managed to get their hands on fentanyl-laced percocet in the security unit.

The oversight jurisdiction of the state regulatory board could soon be expanded to include jurisdiction over secure juvenile treatment facilities statewide. Penner, chief of the board of directors, said Gov. Gavin Newsom recommended the shift as part of the budget process.