The University of Alabama’s Julia Tutwiler Hall residency received its namesake from the proponent of educational, prison and women’s rights reform, but another building off a busy Wetumpka highway carries her name as well: the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women.

Julia Tutwiler was a renowned innovator of Alabama’s educational system in her lifetime. But she is not remembered just for her impact on education. She became known as the “Angel of the Stockade” while advocating for humane prison conditions throughout Alabama.

Today, however, a prison that carries her name has some of the worst conditions for a correctional facility in the entire state.

Throughout a long career of teaching, activism and educational leadership, Tutwiler was closely involved with the founding of the institutions that became the University of Montevallo and the University of West Alabama.

“She had a personality that was somewhat interesting,” said Marcia Synnott, professor of history at the University of South Carolina. “She was called ‘Miss Jule,’ and the students liked her, but she did have her quirks. She could be somewhat demanding, she was considered impulsive and had strong moral convictions.”

(See also “Addressing sexual assault in college“)

The Tuscaloosa native also had deep family ties to The University of Alabama. Her father, Henry Tutwiler, accepted the position of the University’s chair of ancient languages in 1831. He later married Julia Ashe, daughter of the university steward Pascal Ashe. Her uncle, Carlos G. Smith, also served as a former UA president.

Today, the prison that carries the famous reformer’s name faces allegations of “unabated” staff-on-inmate sexual abuse and harassment, as reported by the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Julia Tutwiler would be rolling over in her grave to think of what has happened in a space that bears her name,” said John Archibald, a columnist for The Birmingham News. “She really did a lot to help change and reshape Alabama’s prison system. So when this happens now, you can’t help but look at the irony.”

In a 36-page letter to Gov. Robert Bentley earlier this year, the DOJ summarized the results of an April 2013 investigation of the prison, declaring conditions to be unconstitutional. According to the DOJ’s findings, instances of sexual misconduct by prison employees include rape, sodomy, fondling, voyeurism, sexually explicit verbal abuse and other offenses.

“For nearly two decades, Tutwiler has had a sordid history of sexual abuse and harassment of prisoners that has included rape and pregnancies,” the letter stated.

(See also “Youth have to hold UA accountable for sexual assaults“)

The document also notified officials that the DOJ would be expanding its investigation of the prison.

Despite having known since at least 1995 of sexual abuse and harassment risks to prisoners, Alabama Department of Corrections and Tutwiler officials “failed to take reasonable steps to protect the women in their custody,” the report continued.

A number of legislative and institutional changes have since been implemented, including a $24 million increase in funding for ADOC for the 2014 fiscal year. ADOC Public Information Officer Kristi Gates said the money was used to install cameras within the prison, to hire additional corrections officers and to pay for renovations at the Wetumpka Women’s Facility that will expand and house more inmates from Tutwiler.

Archibald said the culture of the ADOC itself must change first for there to be any lasting improvement. The vast majority of past charges against prison staff were pleaded down to misdemeanors, which speaks to an institution that looks the other way, he said.

Paul Pruitt Jr., a special collections librarian at the UA Bounds Law Library, said Julia Tutwiler would be sad and disgusted if reports of sexual misconduct proved true, but not necessarily surprised. He said Tutwiler, who campaigned for the separation of male and female prisoners, likely knew of similar abuses during her lifetime.

“Tuscaloosa was the site of her first big public reformist action,” Pruitt said. “She discovered the jail in Tuscaloosa was unheated, it was poorly looked at, and the prisoners were suffering from colds, poor food and general neglect.”

With assistance from the Tuscaloosa Benevolence Society women’s group, Tutwiler launched her first prison reform mission. She energized the movement and called for a survey of all Alabama jails that indicated similarly poor conditions throughout the state, Pruitt said. Backed by group members, she pushed a bill through the legislature that required better treatment for prisoners, including heating and free clean water for county jails.

Tutwiler sought to end the state’s convict lease system and advocated for the separation of adult and youthful offenders. She also established schools for prisoners, many of whom were illiterate, Pruitt said.

Present day reform efforts involve the state’s 2014-15 General Fund Budget, which will allow the Governor’s Office to create an ombudsman position to address concerns of female inmates in the system, Gates said. The ADOC also hired The Moss Group, a national consulting firm that specializes in criminal justice management and sexual safety in confinement.

“The Moss Group has worked in all 50 states and is known for being progressive when it comes to sexual safety responses,” Gates said. “The group will help ADOC further the reforms listed in DOJ directives and our own recommendations and help ADOC enforce the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act.”

(See also “Art supports sexual assault victims“)

The Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit watchdog for the criminal justice system, issued a press release in May 2012 stating it had filed a complaint to the DOJ citing widespread sexual abuse at the prison. Following this complaint, ADOC Commissioner Kim Thomas requested an audit from the DOJ’s National Institute of Corrections branch in June 2012, Gates said.

In January 2013, Thomas implemented a directive of 58 recommendations at Tutwiler, examples of which included adding panel doors in bathroom areas to enhance inmate privacy and discontinuing the process of strip searches of inmates returning to the facility, Gates said.

Pruitt, who described Tutwiler as the ultimate pragmatist, said her push for reform was frequently an uphill battle.

“What happens when an institution that is reformist in nature falls off in that reformism?” he said. “If you are a reformer, what you have to do is get back in there. You have to argue the same points, persuade them if you can, shame them if you must. It never stops.”