VisionQuest Youths Charged in Escape Attempt

An Oceanside teen-ager was charged with aggravated assault after being accused of breaking the shoulder of a staff member of the Arizona-based VisionQuest juvenile detention center during a March 18 escape attempt.

The youth, 16, is being held at the Bisbee County Juvenile Center along with a 15-year-old Oakland youth, who is charged with felony endangerment and misdemeanor threatening and intimidation, according to Sgt. Art Bernal of the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department.

The two youths were confronted by detention staff members during a late-night escape attempt when one of the youths struck one of the staff members with a 3-foot wooden tepee stake, Bernal said. Alfredo Moran, 32-year-old counselor at the facility, was treated for a broken bone in his upper left shoulder.

The VisionQuest program emphasizes rigorous outdoor activity and what some regard as strict discipline to motivate wayward youths. The program, which contains 41 wards from the San Diego County juvenile court system, has been under investigation by both federal and county grand juries in San Diego since last year, after reports of child abuse. The grand juries’ investigations were prompted by the death of a 16-year-old Chula Vista youth, who collapsed in April, 1984, after his pleas for medical attention were dismissed by the center’s counselors.

The county has stopped sending youths to the wilderness program until the investigation is completed, according to Doug Willingham, director of juvenile services in San Diego.

A total of four youths tried to escape from the center, which is in the remote high desert of southeast Arizona, but only two were taken into custody, said Mike Cracovaner, administrative director for VisionQuest.

Myrtle Young, chief juvenile probation officer for Cochise County, said if the Arizona juvenile court finds the youth guilty of the felony, it has the option of turning him over to California authorities or holding him in an Arizona detention center. The youth will be tried as a juvenile.

The VisionQuest company is paid $27,375 per year for each teen-age delinquent San Diego County sends to the program--approximately 25% more than the cost of housing an offender in a county-run institution.