I don't have any direct experience with Alabama jumpers. From everything I've read about them, they seem much too active to keep in an indoor bin. I'm not sure about an outdoor bin, though. Some people do keep nightcrawler-type worms in bins with success, but Alabama jumpers are pretty crazy worms.

The reason red wigglers are the worm of choice for most bins, and certainly for most indoor bins, is that they are naturally adapted to a bin-type environment. They don't mind being crowded together all in a small space, and they do not have any natural tendency to burrow down into the soil, since they live above the soil in piles of leaf waste, manure, etc. They also don't wander very far, unless they are stressed by conditions in the bin.

What you describe happening with your African night crawlers sounds like the result of fatal bin conditions, not the result of natural wandering behavior. Hard to say without more information about what happened.

If you've got Alabama jumpers already hanging around in your outside piles, maybe that will give you enough for fishing purposes without trying to keep them in bins. For vermicomposting my feeling is that red wigglers are a better choice.

Larry, could you sort of contain ("fench off") your outside pile so as not to enable them to wander off too far. Are you in a warm area? It is more like parsley's idea, to keep them in their original habitat. Just feed them regularly so they won't be looking for greener pastures.

I don't know much about alabama jumpers but I did run across this guy who raises nightcrawlers and jumpers when I was poking around YT a while back. Hope this video will be helpful