Oakley Youth Development Center

Oakley Youth Development Center (OYDC),[2] formerly known as Oakley Training School is a juvenile correctional facility of the Mississippi Department of Human Services located in unincorporated Hinds County, Mississippi,[3] near Raymond.[4] It is Mississippi's sole juvenile correctional facility for children adjudicated into the juvenile correctional system.

Oakley
Unincorporated community
Oakley Youth Development Center
Oakley is located in Mississippi
Oakley
Oakley
Location within the state of Mississippi
Coordinates: 32°13′09″N 90°30′34″W
CountryUnited States
StateMississippi
CountyHinds
Elevation
197 ft (60 m)
Time zoneUTC-6 (Central (CST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP codes
39154
Area code601
GNIS feature ID675128[1]
Websitemdhs.state.ms.us/dys_instit.html

Oakley has a capacity of 150 students.[5] Oakley is located on a 1,068-acre (432 ha) plot of land surrounded by agricultural fields; the State of Mississippi states that the complex is about a 30-minute commute from Jackson.[6] Grantier Architecture designed a 6,598 square feet (613.0 m2) building of the school.[7]

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.[2]

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 2,725-acre (1,103 ha) property that became the Oakley Farm, and the state housed all women in the Mississippi penal system in Oakley.[8] A limestone crushing plant opened at Oakley; it became a financial failure.[9] 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 (Parchman) in Sunflower County, Mississippi. 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."[10]

Later Oakley became the Negro Juvenile Reformatory and the Black Juvenile Reformatory School.[11][12] 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.[13]

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.[14] Around 2008 the Mississippi Youth Justice Project advocated for the closure of Oakley.[15] Officials from the school responded, saying that the school had made improvements since past scandals.[16]

Facilities

A post office opened at what is now the Oakley Training School in 1837.[17]

References
  1. "Oakley, Mississippi". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2010/pdf/HB/1400-1499/HB1479SG.pdf
  3. "2020 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP: Hinds County, MS" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. p. 13(PDF p. 14/28). Retrieved 2022-08-14. Oakley Training Schl
  4. "Division of Youth Services Archived January 13, 2010, at the Wayback Machine." Mississippi Department of Human Services. Retrieved on July 1, 2010. "2375 Oakley Road | Raymond, MS 39154."
  5. "Institutional Programs and Services Archived June 12, 2002, at the Wayback Machine." Mississippi Department of Human Services. Retrieved on July 21, 2010.
  6. "CRIPA Investigation of Oakley and Columbia Training Schools in Raymond and Columbia, Mississippi Archived 2010-05-30 at the Wayback Machine." United States Department of Justice. June 19, 2003. 2 (2/48). Retrieved on July 21, 2010.
  7. "Oakley Training School." Grantier Architecture. Retrieved on July 21, 2010.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. Underwood, Felix J. "Departments of Education and Public Health Working Together." American Journal of Public Health. Volume 44, May 1954. 526 (6/29). "and the Negro Juvenile Reformatory, Oakley, Miss."
  12. "Mississippi's African-American Authors." Mississippi State University. August 25, 2004. Retrieved on August 23, 2010.
  13. "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."
  14. "Mississippi Department of Corrections receives $2.8 million grant from U.S. Department of Justice Archived 2010-05-30 at the Wayback Machine." Mississippi Department of Corrections. December 13, 2001. Retrieved on January 25, 2011.
  15. Mott, Ronni. "Oakley Training School: A 'Bad Model'." Jackson Free Press. November 26, 2008. Retrieved on August 9, 2010.
  16. "Administrator defends Oakley Training School." WLBT. November 20, 2008. Modified on December 2, 2008. Retrieved on August 9, 2010.
  17. "Feature Detail Report for: Oakley Post Office (historical)." U.S. Geographic Survey. Retrieved on September 26, 2011.
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