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By Miriam Raftery
June 4, 2017 (Campo) – A report by the San Diego County Grand Jury issued May 30th proposed consolidating juvenile detention facilities and closing Camp Barrett in a remote area of Alpine near Descanso, 35 miles from San Diego.
Grand Jury members toured the County’s Kearny Mesa, East Mesa and Camp Barrett juvenile detention facilities, finding two in need of major repairs and greatly underutilized.
Camp Barrett houses high-risk boys ages 13 to 18, offering an incentive-based reward system to help the young men learn to modify their behavior. Although boys with severe mental illness are not housed at Camp Barrett, nevertheless 25% of the juveniles there are on psychotropic medications for conditions such as anxiety, depression or attention deficit disorder.
A running club at the camp has shown “encouraging results” and the facility also has a vegetable garden where boys grow their own foods. An education curriculum follows University of California guidelines and include transition and pre-release meetings. The camp also offers culinary arts, horticultural skills, auto repair and maintenance and barista training classes.
Overall, Camp Barrett has a recidivism rate of 29%, meaning 71% do not reoffend.
However, the report also found problems including offices, classrooms and dormitories “clearly substandard” in the aging facility and in need of major repairs. A common restroom without doors offers no privacy. The remote location also makes it difficult for families to visit, though teleconferencing remote “visits” are allowed, the report notes.
ECM contacted the Grand Jury to inquire how many of the boys housed at Camp Barrett are typically from East County, meaning moving/consolidating to a location in San Diego would result in long commutes for their families. We did not receive an answer. Similarly, the Grand Jury noted that the remote location meant long drives for employees, but did not seem to consider whether moving the location elsewhere would simply create long drives for other employees who may live in East County.
A 2015/16 Gran d Jury report had recommended a long-range master plan be created to determine feasibility and advisability of consolidating juvenile detention facilities. The County asked for more time to create that plan by December 2016 but as of April, the Probation department still had not done so. The Grand Jury voiced disappointment that the department has not acknowledged the “urgent need to create the master plan to replace an unsuitable, deteriorating and aging facility.
In August 2015, another juvenile facility, Juvenile Ranch, was closed. Those detainees were relocated to the remaining three facilities. Despite this action, however, the total cost for all three facilities increased by $1.6 million instead of decreasing. That’s because employees were transferred to the remaining facilities, increasing the staff to detainee ratio. The County also failed to advise insurers that the number of detainees has decreased over time.
The Grand Jury members praised staff at Camp Barrett as “dedicated and upbeat” adding that detainees interviewed were “optimistic about success once released.”
However, with only 85 detainees at the time Grand Jurors visited, the facility at Camp Barrett was 55% underutilized, the report found.
Have you stayed at Camp Barrett, had a child there, or worked there? If so, please share your experiences in our comments section.
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