Youth in Detention and Probation Help Paint 150-Foot Family Mural at Mobile’s Strickland Youth Center

MOBILE, Ala. — For many children, the first walk into the Mobile County Juvenile Court at the Strickland Youth Center is a frightening one. A new mural painted with the help of young people in the center’s detention and probation programs is meant to change at least part of that experience, surrounding the courtroom with scenes of fathers fishing with their children, grandmothers baking and family members fixing a child’s hair.

The 150-foot artwork is the work of Alabama muralist Banks Compton, who spent more than two years working with youth at the James T. Strickland Youth Center on Costarides Street in Mobile. In all, 34 children from the center’s detention and probation programs contributed to the project.

The murals will be formally unveiled at a reception at the Strickland Youth Center on Monday, Nov. 16, at 10 a.m.

Inspired by conversations with the kids

Compton said the theme of the mural grew out of the time he spent talking with the young people one on one. What stood out, he said, was how much small, everyday moments with a parent, grandparent or guardian meant to them.

“This mural was really inspired by the deep conversations that I had with these kids, working with them one on one,” Compton said. “It was really revealing to me to understand how much the little moments that they had with their guardians really meant to them.”

Those moments became the subject of the finished work. Youth Court Judge Edmond Naman, the juvenile division circuit judge who has presided over the court at Strickland for years, described the scenes as a portrait of family life in the county.

“Children fishing with their fathers, grandmothers baking, children having their hair done, just the traditions that are important to a child growing up in Mobile County,” Naman said.

Leaving their mark

The young participants did more than offer ideas. Parts of the mural were painted directly by them, and Compton chose to keep their work visible in the final piece rather than painting over it.

“The fish painted by the kids in detention and probation, this was a really fun moment for them to leave their mark in the design,” Compton said.

According to Compton’s description of the project on his website, the youth took part in a series of workshop sessions in which they created their own artwork and contributed to the courthouse panels through color, lettering, collage, imagery and painting. Compton supplied the overall design and structure, while the participants made their own creative choices within it. Fish, flowers and other details painted by the young people were intentionally left untouched in the completed murals so that their contributions remain permanently on display.

The project includes four large mural panels and a smaller center panel designed for the juvenile courthouse, drawing on the landscape, landmarks and culture of Mobile and the Gulf Coast while exploring themes of mentorship, guardianship, family, leadership and community. It also includes a Children’s Gallery that displays artwork created by young people involved with the Strickland Youth Center and the juvenile justice system.

A message for the adults, too

Compton said the mural is aimed not only at the children who pass through Strickland but also at the parents, guardians and other adults in their lives.

“I think it’s a message for everybody. All of your actions have consequences, and they can have a great positive effect on the people around you,” he said.

Naman said the artwork changes the feel of a room where families often arrive anxious and uncertain about what comes next.

“When you have this beauty that outlines this, it really frames this courtroom that many times is not soothing and many times, it’s very scary,” the judge said.

Funded by a state arts grant

The Strickland Youth Center courtroom mural and Children’s Gallery project received a $7,000 grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, according to Compton. The state agency awards grants to support arts programs, arts education and public art in communities across Alabama.

The grant supported a project that combined professionally designed public art with direct participation by young people, allowing the art they created in the workshops to become part of a permanent installation at the juvenile court.

Building on ‘The Heart of Mobile’

The new mural is not Compton’s first project at Strickland. He first worked with the center in 2024 on a series of 12 murals built around the theme “The Heart of Mobile.” In that project, participants were asked to think about what Mobile meant to them and how their own creativity could become part of a larger story about the city.

That first collaboration started an ongoing relationship between the artist and the youth center that led to additional workshops and, eventually, the permanent courthouse murals unveiled this month.

The art projects are part of a wider effort at Strickland to offer young people constructive outlets while they are involved with the court. The youth center’s website highlights programs including a partnership with the Alabama Contemporary Art Center to bring art education to court-involved youth, a gardening program, a filmmaking program called Speak Up and a dog therapy program. The center’s motto, posted on its website, describes the work as a fight “for the hearts and souls of our children” that “only can be won by community collaborations and fresh and innovative approaches to building and strengthening our families.”

Who is Banks Compton?

Compton is a native of Florence, Alabama, and a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. Early in his career he designed Mardi Gras floats at Kern Studios in New Orleans, experience he has said helps him with large-scale painting and sculpture.

He now lives in Foley, and his website lists more than 100 murals across 10 states. Closer to home, his recent work includes the storybook murals and sculptural reading tree in the Children’s Story Grove at the new Foley Community Library, where visitors have nicknamed his painted animals Amelia Harehart, Lion Armstrong and Prince Albert. South AL News profiled that project in October in “Amelia Harehart and Lion Armstrong: Inside the Foley Library Murals by Alabama Artist Banks Compton.” He has also painted murals explaining the recycling process for the Baldwin County Solid Waste Disposal Authority’s facility in Summerdale.

Much of Compton’s recent work has focused on education and young people. In discussing the Foley library project, he said every mural starts with learning about a place and the people who will use it, which sometimes means “listening to the people who actually use the space.” At Strickland, that meant the children themselves.

About the Strickland Youth Center

The James T. Strickland Youth Center, located at 2315 Costarides St. in Mobile, houses the juvenile division of Mobile County’s circuit court along with the county’s juvenile detention and probation operations. Its programs and resources range from intake and probation to services for children in need of supervision, and volunteer groups such as court-appointed special advocates work with children there.

For years, the juvenile judge oversaw not only the court’s docket but also the administration of the detention center. That changed after the Alabama Legislature passed House Bill 196 in 2025, which cleared the way for the Mobile County Commission to take over administration and supervision of the facility. The commission approved the change in July 2025.

At the time, Naman told WALA-TV that he had sought the change for 19 years and was overseeing nearly 200 employees while also serving as judge. He described the Mobile County juvenile court as the busiest in Alabama and said separating the roles would let him focus on his work on the bench and remove any appearance of a conflict of interest.

Why art in a courthouse matters

Courthouses are rarely designed with children in mind. Hallways and courtrooms tend to be plain, institutional spaces, and for a child already facing charges, a probation review or a family crisis, the setting can add to the stress of the day.

Projects like the Strickland mural aim to soften that environment. By filling the space around the courtroom with familiar, hopeful images of family life in Mobile County, the artwork offers children something to look at and think about while they wait. By including work painted by young people who have themselves been through the system, it also tells new arrivals that others like them have been there and left something positive behind.

For the 34 young people who helped paint it, the mural is a permanent record of their contribution. Their fish, flowers and other details will remain on the walls for the children and families who follow them.

If you go

• What: Reception to unveil the new murals at the Mobile County Juvenile Court
• When: Monday, Nov. 16, 10 a.m.
• Where: James T. Strickland Youth Center, 2315 Costarides St., Mobile
• Artist: Banks Compton, with 34 young people from the center’s detention and probation programs

More information about the youth center’s programs, including volunteer opportunities and parent resources, is available on the Strickland Youth Center website.