Santa Barbara County’s Los Prietos Boys Camp and Los Robles High School will soon be closing their doors, with significant decreases in the incarceration of youth offenders pushing the juvenile detention facility and adjoining school to integrate into the Juvenile Justice Center in Santa Maria. It’s unclear when the facility — in operation since 1944 — will officially close for good, though Chief Probation Officer Tanja Heitman said the Probation Department, which oversees the camp, hopes to complete the transition by June 2023.
The camp has seen significant population decreases in recent years, with the most drastic decline in the last year. The camp’s population in 2018 was about 550, according to Heitman; there are currently eight boys housed at the camp. Although the department anticipated some increases, Heitman said there’s no reason to believe the camp’s population will return to previous levels.
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