When the System Abuses

There had been rumors for years in the small town about the Chalkville Youth Campus and its bad girls court-ordered to stay there. It is a place for the misguided, the criminal, and the captured runaways who were underage girls placed in the state's care. The sprawling campus sits off the main road, behind a stone entryway, upon which is mounted a sign that clearly forbids access to the area unless having been granted permission beforehand.

Many a disobedient girl has been stirred to obey parents when told, "I'll put you in the girl's school if you don't straighten up!" The pictures that then pierced the mind entailed scenes of clanging cell doors, guards bearing rings of keys, and the long road back to the campus, darkened by the overhanging limbs of huge, Alabama oak trees. To a young girl, the large main building is mysterious and looms tall against a blue, southern sky, bearing likeness to an old, ominous castle hiding many years of secrets.

The many years of secrets were brought to light in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Scott Coogler this past week, when a settlement was offered in the 2001 lawsuit began by five girls and their mothers. Though the reason the girls had been placed at the campus was for them to receive the guidance, discipline, and rehabilitation they needed to become law-abiding citizens, their problems were worsened by staffers at the campus who, the girls claim, raped and abused them.

As if news of the scandal was not bad enough, however, evidence was filed which shows that Youth Services officials had been aware of the complaints at the Chalkville campus for years. Judge Coogler referred to documents proving that the department had been given complaints about some of the abusive staff many times. One such time was in the form of a memo showing the former Chalkville Superintendent James Caldwell acknowledging not only a complaint against a guard, John Zeigler, for alleged physical abuse and fondling, but an emerging pattern of complaints:

"I made you aware that this is not the first time that accusations of this nature have come up about you and also noted that I had been told that you had a similar problem before transferring from (the DYS campus at) Mt. Meigs."

The Superintendent also warned Zeigler to be "discreet," especially when dealing with the girls, being sure to abstain from conduct that may "fall into the realm of impropriety."

But that was in 1994. Furthermore, the rumors about staffers seemed to begin circulating much earlier than that, according to Clay-Chalkville resident, Sherry Ward. "Well, there are no male friends allowed to visit the girls. So whenever one would turn up pregnant who had been sent there, we knew something must be going on. The stories always suggested that the girls initiated the sexual behavior in order to be allowed to sneak out or escape, or other rewards. None of us knew that the guards were abusive or that reported rapes were overlooked ."

In light of the findings, the Department of Youth Services has entered a settlement of 12.5 million dollars to be awarded the plaintiffs in the case, as long as Judge Coogler agrees, to compensate the victims for their suffering.