Oakley, Mississippi

Oakley Youth Development Center (OYDC),http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2010/pdf/HB/1400-1499/HB1479SG.pdf formerly known as Oakley Training School is a juvenile correctional facility of the Mississippi Department of Human Services located in unincorporated Hinds County, Mississippi, near Raymond.Division of Youth Services
." Mississippi Department of Human Services. Retrieved on July 1, 2010. "2375 Oakley Road , Raymond, MS 39154." It is Mississippi's sole juvenile correctional facility for children adjudicated into the juvenile correctional system.

Oakley has a capacity of 150 students. Oakley is located on a plot of land surrounded by agricultural fields; the State of Mississippi states that the complex is about a 30-minute commute from Jackson.CRIPA Investigation of Oakley and Columbia Training Schools in Raymond and Columbia, Mississippi
." United States Department of Justice. June 19, 2003. 2 (2/48). Retrieved on July 21, 2010. Grantier Architecture designed a building of the school.

Presently, only a child who has been adjudicated delinquent for a felony or who has been adjudicated delinquent three or more times for a misdemeanor offense may be committed to Oakley. Oakley may retain custody of a child until the child's twentieth birthday but not for longer.

History

Originally Oakley was the Oakley Farm, a prison for women in the State of Mississippi prison system. In 1894 the State of Mississippi purchased a property that became the Oakley Farm, and the state housed all women in the Mississippi penal system in Oakley.Taylor, William B. and Tyler H. Fletcher.
Profits from convict labor: Reality or myth observations in Mississippi: 1907–1934
" ''Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology''. Volume 5, No. 1. Page 30 (1/9). Retrieved on October 31, 2010. A limestone crushing plant opened at Oakley; it became a financial failure.Taylor, William B. and Tyler H. Fletcher.
Profits from convict labor: Reality or myth observations in Mississippi: 1907–1934
" ''Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology''. Volume 5, No. 1. Page 31 (2/9). Retrieved on October 31, 2010. Oakley did not have very good soil, so its farming operations did not do very well. Early in the 20th century the women at Oakley were moved to the Mississippi State Penitentiary. The Mississippi state prison hospital remained at Oakley. On July 21, 1913 a fire swept through the Oakley Prison Farm and killed thirty-five black prisoners. In 1925, after two white prison camps in the Mississippi penal system faced overcrowding, the state of Mississippi moved seventy-five white prisoners between the ages of 14 and 21 to the Oakley facility, turning it into a juvenile correctional facility. William B. Taylor and Tyler H. Fletcher, authors of "Profits from convict labor: Reality or myth observations in Mississippi: 1907–1934," said that Oakley was "a large and unjustifiable financial drain" until its repurposing as a juvenile facility; they said that Oakley was "a financial drain, though perhaps a more justifiable one."Taylor, William B. and Tyler H. Fletcher.
Profits from convict labor: Reality or myth observations in Mississippi: 1907–1934
" ''Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology''. Volume 5, No. 1. Page 32 (3/9). Retrieved on October 31, 2010.

Later Oakley became the Negro Juvenile Reformatory and the Black Juvenile Reformatory School. Before desegregation Oakley housed Black children of both sexes, while the Columbia Training School housed White children of both sexes; the desegregation plan around the 1970s required the state to house male children 15 and older of all races at Oakley, while males 14 and under and females were housed at Columbia.426 F. 2d 269 - Montgomery v. Oakley Training School
" United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. May 6, 1970. Retrieved on August 9, 2010. "There are two juvenile reform schools in Mississippi: Oakley Training School, which was all-black and Columbia Training School, which was all-white. Both schools accommodated both boys and girls. The two schools are 125 miles apart. Children are assigned to the schools by the state's juvenile judges."

In 1999 DYS spent $1,289,700 of U.S. Department of Justice grant money to build a 15-bed maximum security unit for girls at Oakley. Around 2008 the Mississippi Youth Justice Project advocated for the closure of Oakley. Officials from the school responded, saying that the school had made improvements since past scandals.

Facilities

A post office opened at what is now the Oakley Training School in 1837.Feature Detail Report for: Oakley Post Office (historical)
" U.S. Geographic Survey. Retrieved on September 26, 2011.

References

External links

Oakley Youth Development Center
- Mississippi Department of Human Services.

Division of Youth Services
" - Mississippi Department of Human Services.

{{Juvenile prisons in the United States

Buildings and structures in Hinds County, Mississippi
Prisons in Mississippi