Mount Meigs Campus Explained

The Mount Meigs Campus is a juvenile corrections facility of the Alabama Department of Youth Services located in the Mount Meigs community, and in the city of Montgomery, Alabama;[1] the campus serves as the agency's administrative headquarters.[2] [3] The 780acres campus, which can house 264 boys, is next to Interstate 85 North and about 15miles east of Downtown Montgomery.[2] Since 2015, the separate J. Walter Wood Treatment facility for 24 girls is also located in the Mount Meigs Campus.

History

In 1888, Cornelia Bowen was recommended by Booker T. Washington to establish a school for boys and girls in Mount Meigs area. Cornelia Bowen graduated from the Tuskegee Institute in 1885, a member of the first graduating class, and led the Mount Meigs Colored Institute until her death in 1934. In 1908, the State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, of which Bowen was president, established a second school on the grounds of the institute. After much lobbying of Congress, in 1911, the women were successful in convincing the state to take over the operation of the reformatory.[4] [5] [6]

In 1911, the school became the Alabama Reform School for Juvenile Negro Law-Breakers. The name was changed to the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children in 1947, and to the Alabama Industrial School in 1970.[7] [8] [9]

On March 27, 1915, the Hampton Institute Camera Club, known for its illustrations of Paul Laurence Dunbar's poetry, staged a photo sale for the benefit of the Mt. Meigs school. The sale raised funds for four five-dollar scholarships for day students. A Hampton graduate managed the Mt. Meigs school, which was considered "an outgrowth" of Hampton.[10]

Famous residents included baseball legend Leroy Satchel Paige, from 1918 to 1923.[11]

Earlier in its life, its capacity was 312 boys.[12]

There was controversy, in April 2008, when parent Glenn Herrmann said authorities surrounded his Randolph County home and accused him of helping his son break free at the Mount Meigs Campus.[13]

In 2012, the infamous[14] [15] [16] [17] [18] Chalkville Campus facility for girls aged 12 to 18 was destroyed by a tornado[19] and in 2015 the new J. Walter Wood Treatment facility for them was inaugurated at the Mount Meigs campus.[20]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2020 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP: Montgomery city, AL. U.S. Census Bureau. 2022-08-22. 5 (PDF p. 6/17). Alabama Department of Youth Services Mount Meigs Cmps.
    Web site: 2020 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP: Montgomery County, AL. U.S. Census Bureau. 9 (PDF p. 10/45). 2022-08-22. Alabama Department of Youth Services Mount Meigs Cmps.
  2. "Mt. Meigs Campus ." Alabama Department of Youth Services. Retrieved on July 26, 2010.
  3. "School District Contact Information and Addresses ." Alabama Department of Youth Services. Retrieved on July 26, 2010. "DYS Central Office" "1000 Industrial School Road Mt. Meigs, AL 36057"
  4. Book: Spalding, Arthur Whitefield . Lights and Shades in the Black Belt: Containing the Story of the Southern Missionary Society, the Oakwood School, and the Hillcrest School . 1913 . African American Seventh-Day Adventists . Washington, District of Columbia . 105–112 . bot: unknown . https://web.archive.org/web/20170125203254/http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Books/LSBB.pdf . 2017-01-25 .
  5. Book: Smith, Jessie Carney. Smith. Jessie Carney. Notable Black American Women. https://books.google.com/books?id=ssMBzqrUpjwC&pg=PA46. II. 1996. Gale Research Incorporated. Detroit, Michigan. 978-0-8103-9177-2. Cornelia Bowen. 45–48.
  6. . (untitled). The Medical Missionary. November 1914. 23. 11. 26 January 2017. American Medical Missionary Association. Battle Creek, Michigan. 322. Yale University Library.
  7. Web site: Alabama Legislature. alison.legislature.state.al.us. 6 April 2024.
  8. Web site: USA STATUTES : ALABAMA, TITLE : TITLE 16 EDUCATION, CHAPTER : CHAPTER 24 TENURE OF EMPLOYMENT OF TEACHERS.. 6 April 2024.
  9. Web site: Department of Youth Services Functional Analysis & Records Disposition Authority. 6 April 2024.
  10. Southern Workman. volume 44, 1916, page 313
  11. Paige, Leroy (Satchel) (1993). Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever. (As told to David Lipman). University of Nebraska Press. .
  12. "Mt. Meigs Campus." (old page) Alabama Department of Youth Services. Retrieved on March 4, 2011
  13. http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080409/NEWS01/804090368 "Father awaits escapee's call"
  14. Web site: Girls Sue Alabama Juvenile Prison for Abuse | Prison Legal News. www.prisonlegalnews.org. 6 April 2024.
  15. Web site: Eerie abandoned campus of Alabama's girls reform school. 4 August 2016.
  16. Web site: Chalkville: $12.5 million paid to end sex scandal at DYS. 5 May 2007.
  17. Web site: Mary Ellen Mark. 6 April 2024.
  18. http://lubbockonline.com/stories/061701/upd_sexscandal.shtml UPD Sex scandal
  19. Web site: New DYS girls facility reflects juvenile crime reforms. 10 October 2015.
  20. Web site: J. Walter Wood Jr. Residential Treatment Facility Dedication . 2017-04-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170404221025/http://dys.alabama.gov/Woods_Dedication.html . 2017-04-04 . dead .

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