Over 100 years ago, the United States adopted a separate justice system for juveniles charged with violations of criminal law (Smith and Bilchik 20). The purpose was that youthful offenders could be rehabilitated before they became lifelong criminals. Today, there are still separate justice systems for adults and juveniles in state and federal systems, but the juvenile system is not equipped for the shift to increasingly violent crime among juveniles. Recently a Michigan case involved a juvenile convicted of second-degree murder he committed when he was 11. In 1999, 16 percent of those arrested for violent crimes were under the age of 18. Nine percent of murders, 17 percent of forcible rape arrests, and 25 percent of robbery arrests were for crimes committed by juveniles. Drug use, gangs, and family breakdowns were at the root of most of these arrests.
Juveniles have usually received shorter sentences than adults, and have been released at a certain age, whether or not they have been rehabilitated (Smith and Bilchik 20). With the increase in violent crime, many states have enacted laws allowing them to transfer older juveniles accused of serious crimes to be tried in the adult justice system. This allows the juveniles to be sentenced as adults. The Bureau of Statistics results show 20 percent of juveniles arrested at age 18 had their first arrest prior to age 12. These juveniles are the most likely candidates to end up in the adult justice system.
The transfer of juveniles to the adult justice system does not require that they be housed in an adult prison (Smith and Bilchick 21). In the federal corrections system, the policy is that a person under age 18 not be housed in an adult correctional facility, even though he has been processed through the adult system and sentenced as an adult. In the state correctional system, the decision to have separate correctional facilities for offenders under age 18 has been le...