A meeting of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors was temporarily halted on Tuesday as protesters called on authorities to close the newly reopened Los Padrinos juvenile detention center.

At around 9:45 a.m., as the meeting began, a mob of protesters yelled in the boardroom, “Free the youth, close the rally!”

Another group seated a few rows away yelled, “Shut down Los Padrinos.”

Youth Justice Coalition organizational director Tawheeda Shakur said she was tired of attending weekly board meetings to demand the county close juvenile halls as the situation in the county continues to deteriorate.

She said the protests were born out of that frustration.

“We kept coming. We kept coming every Tuesday with faith. Nonstop,” she said. “And they didn’t listen. So any organizer knows that after you play well, it’s time to make your opponents uncomfortable.”

Protesters also said they wanted the county to cut funding for the probation service.

Los Padrinos in Downey reopened this month after a state board of oversight ordered the county to expel most young people from troubled juvenile halls in Boyle Heights and Sylmar. The order came after worsening staffing shortages, rising violence and the overdose death of 18-year-old Brian Diaz.

“Nine kids have overdosed since Brian Diaz,” one of the men shouted on Tuesday, standing a few feet from the conference room entrance. “What more do you need?”

After about 15 minutes of chanting, the protesters moved outside and the assembly soon resumed.

County leaders said Los Padrinos would mark a fresh start for the probation service after years of dysfunction.

But Adrina Roshal, whose son was moved to Los Padrinos last week from the Barry J. Nidolph facility in Sylmar, said she felt the conditions were poor and had heard from people inside that the air conditioner had broken.

“Entire children’s communities are being destroyed,” she said. “It’s not rehab or recovery. It’s an insane mental hospital.”