Number Of Teens In Adult Prisons Doubled, U.S. Justice Department Reports

The number of prison inmates under 18 more than doubled between 1985 and 1997.

In 1985, 3,400 youths 17 or younger were committed to adult prisons on conviction in either juvenile or adult courts. By 1997, the number of such youths had more than doubled to 7,400, the Justice Department reported.

Young inmates by no means are overrunning the prisons' adult population of 2 million, and just 5 percent of all young offenders serve sentences in adult facilities, researchers said. But data suggest that today's violent young offenders are more likely to do prison time than in years past.

That's partly because of an increasing number of state laws that take away their legal status as minors and make them more accountable, researchers say. The crackdown, fueled in part by high-profile school violence, has placed children as young as 11 on trial in criminal courts.

Seven in 10 young offenders who received adult punishment in 1997, the latest year state prison records were available, were convicted of violent crimes. Of that total, 37 percent were jailed for robbery, 13 percent for murder and 13 percent for aggravated assault, the report said.

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