Mount Meigs Campus

The Mount Meigs Campus is a juvenile corrections facility of the Alabama Department of Youth Services located in Mount Meigs, unincorporated Montgomery County; the campus serves as the agency's administrative headquarters.[1][2] The 780-acre (320 ha) campus, which can house 264 boys, is next to Interstate 85 North and about 15 miles (24 km) east of Downtown Montgomery.[1] Since 2015, the separate J. Walter Wood Treatment facility for 24 girls is also located in the Mount Meigs Campus.[3][4]

Mount Meigs Campus Administration Building (under renovation as of March 2011)

History
Front entrance to Mount Meigs Campus

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.[5][6][7]

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.[8][9][10]

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.[11]

Famous residents included baseball legend Leroy Satchel Paige, from 1918-1923.[12]

Earlier in its life, its capacity was 312 boys.[13]

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.[14]

In 2012, the infamous[15][16][17][18][19] Chalkville facility for girls aged 12 to 18[16] was destroyed by a tornado[3] and in 2015 the new J. Walter Wood Treatment facility for them was inaugurated at the Mount Meigs campus.[4]

See also

References
  1. "Mt. Meigs Campus Archived 2014-02-20 at the Wayback Machine." Alabama Department of Youth Services. Retrieved on July 26, 2010.
  2. "School District Contact Information and Addresses Archived 2010-09-02 at the Wayback Machine." Alabama Department of Youth Services. Retrieved on July 26, 2010. "DYS Central Office" "1000 Industrial School Road Mt. Meigs, AL 36057"
  3. http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/10/new_dys_girls_facility_reflect.html
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-04-04. Retrieved 2017-04-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. Spalding, Arthur Whitefield (1913). Lights and Shades in the Black Belt: Containing the Story of the Southern Missionary Society, the Oakwood School, and the Hillcrest School (PDF). Washington, District of Columbia: African American Seventh-Day Adventists. pp. 105–112. Archived from the original on 2017-01-25.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. Smith, Jessie Carney (1996). "Cornelia Bowen". In Smith, Jessie Carney (ed.). Notable Black American Women. II. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Incorporated. pp. 45–48. ISBN 978-0-8103-9177-2.
  7. "(untitled)" (PDF). The Medical Missionary. Battle Creek, Michigan: American Medical Missionary Association. 23 (11): 322. November 1914. Retrieved 26 January 2017 – via Yale University Library.
  8. Alabama Boys Industrial School, Alabama Training School for Girls and Alabama Industrial School - Donations and endowment funds.
  9. USA STATUTES : ALABAMA, TITLE : TITLE 16 EDUCATION, CHAPTER : CHAPTER 24 TENURE OF EMPLOYMENT OF TEACHERS.
  10. Department of Youth Services Functional Analysis & Records Disposition Authority
  11. Southern Workman. volume 44, 1916, page 313
  12. Paige, Leroy (Satchel) (1993). Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever. (As told to David Lipman). University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-8732-1.
  13. "Mt. Meigs Campus." (old page) Alabama Department of Youth Services. Retrieved on March 4, 2011
  14. "Father awaits escapee's call", 9 April 2008, Montgomery Advertiser
  15. https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2002/sep/15/girls-sue-alabama-juvenile-prison-for-abuse/
  16. http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2016/08/eerie_abandoned_campus_of_alab.html
  17. http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2007/05/chalkville_125_million_paid_to.html
  18. http://www.maryellenmark.com/text/magazines/marie%20claire%20usa/919G-000-001.html
  19. http://lubbockonline.com/stories/061701/upd_sexscandal.shtml
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