Youth Courts Renew Ties to Controversial VisionQuest

With the informal blessing of the Board of Supervisors, San Diego County’s juvenile courts have reestablished their relationship with the controversial youth program VisionQuest.

The program uses cross-country wagon train treks and other challenging outdoor activities to rehabilitate delinquents who don’t respond to other forms of detention.

Juvenile Court Administrator Michael Roddy said Tuesday that referrals to VisionQuest would begin immediately. The first youths should reach the program within 60 days, after being screened by VisionQuest and county probation officers, Roddy said.

The court had agreed in December to stop sending wards to VisionQuest until questions about the Tucson-based program’s tactics and effectiveness were investigated.

Supervising Judge Napoleon Jones and Judge Judith McConnell said in a Sept. 12 letter to Board of Supervisors Chairman Leon Williams that they were satisfied the program was sound.

Although no formal action by supervisors was needed, Williams and Supervisor Brian Bilbray said in letters of their own last week that they too were satisfied with a U.S. Justice Department investigation concluding that VisionQuest has made several improvements to resolve questions raised by probation officers and others.

“The findings indicate that VisionQuest has made significant program changes in such areas as medical care . . . , increased educational opportunities, and provisions for a grievance system which will benefit the youths placed in their program,” Williams wrote. “In the area of physical confrontation, VisionQuest’s new guidelines clearly address the concerns raised by the the court, county staff and our board.”

Those new guidelines state that physical force will be used only when youths initiate a confrontation and only after the juvenile has had the opportunity to back off and avoid the confrontation, according to Bilbray.

Bilbray said he was also impressed by VisionQuest’s promise to make it easier for youths to receive medical attention, an area in which the program had frequently been criticized.

Chief Administrative Officer Clifford Graves said no further action by the Board of Supervisors would be needed. Although the board has the power to cancel the county’s contract with VisionQuest, as long as that contract exists the courts are free to take advantage of it.

“Now that the air’s been cleared, the placements will begin as soon as the judges would like,” Graves said.