With David Weakley’s retirement in 1948, there was a changing of the guard at the Alabama Boys’ Industrial School. It had always been Weakley’s hope that “one of his boys” would succeed him, and that dream was realized when former student J. B. Hill was named the school’s superintendent.
Hill was indeed one of the most accomplished young men that the school ever produced. He was a graduate of Birmingham-Southern College with a degree in history and sociology and later received his master’s degree in social work from Tulane University. Hill had also built an impressive resume in social work with the Methodist church, the juvenile court, and the American Red Cross.1
Life at the school during much of Hill’s tenure was not remarkably different than that under his mentor. As late as 1964, the school still had its concert band, the Banner, a high school-level sports program, a farm, and an array of trades.2 During Hill’s twenty years at the helm, a gymnasium, three dormitories, and Hill Hall were added to the campus.3
John Carr was superintendent of the school during its most tumultuous period from 1967 until 1975.4 The changes were not altogether by design, nor were they due to any neglect on the part of Carr. A tidal wave of change occurred in the state and nation during the 1970s that carried the school with it. Juvenile justice was receiving more attention than ever before, as indicated by Congress’ creation of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. This new federal agency enacted new policies, standards, and recommendations that drastically changed how states dealt with troubled youth. The Alabama Department of Youth Services was created during this period as a response to these federal mandates, and in 1975 the department assumed control of not only ABIS, but Chalkville and Mt. Meigs as well. No longer would each school have its own board of directors and manage its own affairs. ABIS’s name was changed to Alabama Youth Services–Roebuck Campus.5
The nationwide civil rights movement also affected Alabama’s juvenile institutions. ABIS had admitted its first black youth on March 26, 1970, in response to a court order requiring the school to racially integrate its student population. Another court order during this period established that the school’s age range should be set at twelve to fourteen years of age, with older boys of both races being sent to Alabama Youth Services–Mt. Meigs, which had previously been exclusively for black boys.6
The reclassification of Alabama’s juvenile institutions also led to programmatic changes. With the focus of the renamed Roebuck campus now being younger boys, the school’s signature vocational program was largely dismantled, and its equipment was sent to Mt. Meigs. Hereafter, the school’s only involvement in vocational education would be a class to “orient students to the world of work and help them make valid career choices.”7
McNeel School is one of the oldest buildings on campus, dating back to the Weakley era.
Graves Hall, originally the Mechanic Arts Building, now serves as an administration building.
Bush Chapel has been maintained, but the stately trees that surrounded it are a thing of the past.
The emphasis of the school would now be on academics, with the expectation that on release most of the students would return to schools in their home communities.
Two other items relative to the recent history of the institution are worthy of note. In 1976, the Youth Services board voted to close the campus due to dwindling enrollment and other factors. Jefferson County, the City of Birmingham, and other local supporters filed suit to keep the campus open. Before the legal process reached a conclusion, the rising number of juvenile commitments to the Department of Youth Services led the board to reverse its decision, and within a year all three campuses were again operating at full capacity. In 1981, a joint resolution of the Alabama legislature renamed the institution as the Alabama Youth Services–Vacca Campus in recognition of Senator Pat Vacca, an advocate and ally of the school for more than thirty years. 8
In the sixty-plus years after Colonel Weakley’s retirement, there had been seven superintendents at the campus as of early 2014. The physical appearance of the campus has changed significantly since the Weakley days. From a high point of some thirty buildings, the campus now has only ten, with only three remaining from the Weakley era. Fencing and other security measures were added to the campus in 1991.9
The institution’s population is much smaller today. In 1931, the average population was more than 450 boys, with approximately 650 total boys served during the year.10 Today, the typical headcount is around 66 boys on a given day, with about 200 total youths housed during the entire year. The reduction is not because of any decline in juvenile delinquency, but rather due to an emphasis on probation and other local community programs instead of institutionalization.11
Today the school offers a sophisticated array of programs to deal with the problems of juvenile offenders. Short and long-term chemical addiction programs are provided, as well as classes in violence prevention and anger management. Athletic competition between the institution and other high schools has largely been replaced by intramural sports. Epiphany Ministries, a private ecumenical Christian ministry for young men and women housed in the juvenile justice system, is active on the campus.12 The institution also has a chaplain who assists with the spiritual needs of the residents. Sadly, the beautiful Bush Chapel is no longer used to the fullest extent due to the security concerns presented by bringing large segments of the population together at one time.13
Much of the day-to-day activity on campus revolves around the academic program, housed in the Adele Goodwyn McNeel School. The academic program is a component of the Alabama Department of Youth Services school district, which functions under the same rules and regulations as any other public school system. The school day is divided into seven periods, with emphasis on the four core subjects of English, mathematics, social studies, and science. Because the boys are functioning at such varied levels, an individual educational service plan is developed for each student. The school is currently staffed with thirteen instructors, a principal, a counselor, a media specialist, and a psychometrist.14
Noticeably absent from the daily routine on campus is any semblance of the physical labor that Weakley felt was so crucial in turning boys into men. Working on the farm, assisting in the construction of buildings, and doing maintenance are a thing of the past. The culprit is a system burdened with endless regulations and frozen by the fear of litigation.
“The boys have not been allowed to work doing maintenance and the like for the last five to ten years, basically because of the regulations that are in place and liability issues,” Superintendent James Thomas (2008– ) explained. “The only way you can do it is if you have all the right safety requirements in place, and it just got to be a real hassle. It almost got to the point that we had to have one person supervising each boy, watching them to make sure they weren’t doing anything dangerous.”15
As dramatic as these changes have been, they are matched by the stark differences in the boys that are sent to the school and the problems that accompany them. The primary clientele today are young males between the ages of twelve and fifteen, although there are some exceptions. Today, more than 60 percent of the youths served by Vacca in a typical year are fourteen and fifteen years of age.16 In 1910, nearly 60 percent were sixteen and seventeen years old.17 Obviously, much of this difference comes from the institution’s change in mission, but national trends also show that today’s juvenile offenders are younger than ever before.18
More remarkable than the age change has been the difference in the nature of the offenses committed by the boys sent to the institution. In 1910, the leading crimes were larceny, incorrigibility, gambling, disorderly conduct, and truancy.19 One hundred years later, the most common offenses at the institution were robbery, burglary, larceny, assault, and drug crimes.20 These statistics clearly show that yesterday’s foolhardy, mischievous, adolescent behavior has escalated into serious, violent, criminal activity.
It is also worth noting that two-thirds of the current residents of this formerly all-white institution are now African American,21 a percentage that closely approximates Alabama’s adult prison population.22
Another difference in the two institutions is the length of time that boys stayed at the institution a century ago compared to today. A report from 1910 showed that most of the boys were ordered to stay at the school from their time of commitment until their eighteenth birthday, although parole was granted for exemplary behavior.23 Certainly, most of the boys left the school before reaching adulthood, but it is obvious even from the anecdotal records left by Griffin and Weakley that many of the boys did stay for several years—ample time to get rid of some bad habits and replace them with some good ones. By contrast, the typical stay at Vacca today is four to six months.24
There have also been changes of a more subtle nature, such as the attitudes of the boys confined there. Carolyn Turner has been a counselor at the school since 1974, and she has seen significant attitudinal change even during her tenure. “In general, students now are harder to reach,” she stated. “It’s harder to get them to focus on change. They’re more satisfied. They think it’s okay that they’re robbing and stealing. They have no remorse; they don’t regret what they’ve done.”25
Several factors have fueled this attitude, but one stands out above the rest. “Drugs have had the greatest impact,” Turner concluded.26 Superintendent Thomas bolstered her argument with his estimate that 80 percent of Vacca students have had some involvement with illegal drugs.27
Alabama Youth Services–Vacca Campus is very different from the school that was founded over 100 years earlier as the Alabama Boys’ Industrial School. There are new programs, modern buildings, and highly educated professionals. The boys who come there have problems that would have confounded even the astute Colonel Weakley. What remains constant, however, is the school’s steadfast devotion to helping troubled boys change.
1 Birmingham Post-Herald, “One of the Boys Back to Head ABI School,” April 15, 1948.
2 ABIS reports, Annual Report 1963-64 (East Lake: Alabama Boys’ Industrial School, 1964), 9-12.
3 Thomas.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 ABIS reports, Annual Report 1969-70 (East Lake: Alabama Boys’ Industrial School, 1970), 3-4.
7 ABIS reports, Annual Report 1973-74 (East Lake: Alabama Boys’ Industrial School, 1974), 7.
8 Thomas.
9 Ibid.
10 Thirty-First, 14.
11 Thomas.
12 Department of Youth Services, “Vacca Campus,” http://dys.alabama.gov/Vacca.html (accessed September, 2011).
13 Thomas.
14 Alabama Department of Youth Services, “McNeel School,” http://dys.alabama.gov/mcneelschool.html (accessed September, 2011).
15 Thomas.
16 Allen Peaton, interview by author, Montgomery, Alabama, September, 2011.
17 U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Prisoners and Juvenile Delinquents in the United States 1910 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1918), 524.
18 Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, “Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics: 1985-2011,” http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezajcs/ (accessed October, 2011).
19 Prisoners and Juvenile Delinquents, 506-508.
20 Peaton.
21 Ibid.
22 Alabama Department of Corrections, “Statistical Reports,” http://www.doc.state.al.us/StatReports.aspx, (accessed October, 2011).
23 Prisoners and Juvenile Delinquents, 523.
24 Thomas.
25 Carolyn Turner, interview by author, Birmingham, Alabama, August, 2011.
26 Ibid.
27 Thomas.