ACLU Asks County to Cut Its Contract Ties to VisionQuest

The American Civil Liberties Union, echoing sentiments expressed last month by the San Diego County Grand Jury, demanded Monday that the county sever its ties to VisionQuest and return to San Diego all local youth offenders in the controversial rehabilitation program.

“For many months we have observed, with growing dismay, the excesses, shortcomings and intransigence of the VisionQuest program,” wrote local ACLU attorney Gregory Marshall in a letter delivered to all five county supervisors. “It is clear that the time is overdue for this county to terminate its experimental relationship with VisionQuest.”

Copies of Marshall’s three-page letter also were delivered to presiding Superior Court Judge Donald W. Smith and presiding Juvenile Court Judge Napoleon A. Jones Jr.

In an interview, Marshall said the ACLU has been pondering involvement in the VisionQuest issue for some time but was able only recently to devote the manpower needed to study it.

“We’d like the county to come out and say ‘We’ve had it; this program just isn’t worth it,’ ” Marshall said.

He said the ACLU is concerned about the so-called “hands-on” procedures used to quiet unruly teens at VisionQuest, an Arizona-based organization that operates cross-country wagon train treks and rugged wilderness camps in Arizona, New Mexico and Pennsylvania.

Although the county stopped sending youths to VisionQuest in November, 32 juvenile offenders remain in the program. As many as 140 San Diegans have been enrolled there in the past.

Two county supervisors reached by The Times on Monday said the ACLU’s call for the county to end its relationship with VisionQuest was premature. The board is scheduled to receive the grand jury’s report today and may discuss the issue then.

“It’s very important that we look at VisionQuest as part of the entire package of the juvenile justice system,” Supervisor Susan Golding said. “To examine VisionQuest alone is neither just nor fair and may not give us the answers we’re looking for. All I know is that what we’ve done in the past (before VisionQuest) has not been successful, and that there’s a built-in resistance to doing anything new.”

Golding said she is skeptical of reports that VisionQuest has not been successful in its effort to rehabilitate troubled teens. She noted that most of the youths who are assigned to the program have already failed to show progress at the publicly operated California Youth Authority.

‘We’re not talking about kids who stole their neighbor’s garden hose,” Golding said. “We’re talking about hard-core criminals. They’re young but they’re hard-core criminals.”

Supervisor George Bailey said he is not prepared to pull the county out of VisionQuest. But he said he will want more information before voting to extend the contract for another year.

Mike Cracovaner, a VisionQuest spokesman, said he didn’t know that the ACLU had involved itself in the controversy, and he refused to comment on the civil rights group’s letter. Cracovaner did take issue with the grand jury’s recommendation.

“The grand jury report seems to recommend a major shift in county operations back to an exclusive county-run camp system,” he said. “The investigation was incomplete and many of its conclusions inaccurate. We urge that its recommendations not be adopted.”

Marshall of the ACLU wouldn’t say what the organization would do if the county ignored its request. He said a lawsuit would be unlikely.

“We’d like to avoid litigation,” he said. “It’s one of those areas where local government has to have some kind of discretion. It’s not one of those area where we prefer to go storming into court and order the government around.”