," which tells the story of an early case in his career: a lawsuit against the state of Alabama over the abusive treatment of children at the Eufaula Adolescent Center.One night in early March 1992, the older boys were crowded in the TV room when a shoving match erupted in the ward. Nothing that couldn’t be handled right there, except for David. He was already in the seclusion room when the charge nurse called for more than the usual two men.
Pacing ahead through the dark, McCowell tugged open the rusted metal door to the boys’ ward and headed up to the third floor. Teenagers gawked from their bedroom doors, stripped to their T-shirts and underwear for bed. McCowell cut to the front and peered through the observation slat of the seclusion room. Drunk with a fresh shot of Thorazine, David lay against the cinder-block wall. His bare flat chest slumped to his belly.
Laughter roared down the hall. Rows of adolescents hollered at the boy they’d known for only a few weeks.A smaller boy shouted, “Bite ’em in the arm!” On the concrete landing, David stood separate from all he knew, all he trusted. He could take the chance to bolt. He’d run for the fences and hide in the woods. He’d think which way to his parents’ house, 225 miles southwest in Foley. But by the time David took his best guess, the dogs from the Ventress men’s prison in Clayton would’ve been set loose. The pack would circle, leap, then snap until it tore him to the ground.
A guard lifted David from the muddy floor, while others pushed from behind. The boy hit the ground in a lurching heave as the men rushed for the exit. McCowell snapped the lock shut. No one acknowledged the screams.