DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02813.v1
title: Youth Under 18 Years Old in Adult Prisons in the United States, 1997
title: Version 1

description: This survey of departments of corrections in the United
States was undertaken to provide correctional staff with design,
implementation, and management strategies to meet the needs of
prisoners under the age of 18. The study examined what happens when
individuals under age 18 are placed in adult correctional facilities,
and explored the ways in which departments of corrections are
attempting to deal with the growing population of youthful
inmates. The following three objectives were the focus of this study:
(1) to describe the number of incarcerated youths (at time of
admission) being held in the nation's prison system, (2) to examine
the different methods being used to house inmates under 18 years old,
and (3) to explore different management approaches used with youthful
inmates in terms of the size of the prison system and the area of the
country in which they were located. For this study, respondents in 51
departments of corrections (50 states and the District of Columbia)
were contacted by telephone regarding survey questions that were
mailed prior to the phone interviews. The survey contained five
questions concerning current practices for handling offenders under
the age of 18 who had been placed in adult correctional
institutions. Data were collected on the method used to house
underaged inmates and the size of each system's population of inmates
under 18 years old. Subsequently, the method and size data were
combined to form categories describing four management approaches for
dealing with offenders under the age of 18 in adult prisons: (1)
separated/big, (2) separated/little, (3) integrated/big, and (4)
integrated/little. Demographic variables include the population size
and region (Northeast, South, Midwest, or West) of each jurisdiction,
as well as the number and proportion of offenders under 18 years old
within each state. Also present in the file is the location and name
of the facility with the largest under-18 population in each
jurisdiction.
description: As the size of the incarcerated population
 continues to grow, so does the total number of incarcerated youths
 under the age of 18. Both current research and a recently completed
 survey by the American Correctional Association (ACA) indicate that
 there is an increasing number of youth offenders under the age of 18
 being confined in adult correctional facilities. This growing
 population brings new responsibilities for staff in adult prisons. As
 more juveniles are being sentenced to adult correctional facilities,
 not much is known about how the adult authorities are dealing with
 this population. In an effort to provide correctional staff with
 design, implementation, and management strategies to meet the needs of
 prisoners under the age of 18, this study examined what happens when
 individuals under 18 years old are placed in adult correctional
 facilities, and explored the ways in which departments of corrections
 are attempting to deal with the growing population of youthful
 inmates. The following three objectives were the focus of this study:
 (1) to describe the number of incarcerated youths (at time of
 admission) being held in the nation's prison systems, (2) to examine
 the different methods being used to house inmates under 18 years old,
 and (3) to explore the different management approaches used with
 youthful inmates in terms of the size of the prison system and area of
the country in which they were located.
description: For this study respondents in 51 departments of
 corrections (50 states and the District of Columbia) were interviewed
 by telephone. A letter explaining the project's purpose, along with a
 one-page survey, was first mailed to all of the agencies. Ten days
 later, all 51 jurisdictions were telephoned and asked to respond to
 the survey questions. The survey contained five questions concerning
 current practices for handling offenders under the age of 18 who had
 been placed in adult correctional institutions. Prior to data
 analyses, the information received from the nation's 51 jurisdictions
 was subdivided along two dimensions: the method the correctional
 facility used for handling its inmates under the age of 18 (either
 separated or integrated), and the size of the system (big or
 small). Four methods used to manage the youthful offenders were
 categorized as follows: (1) correctional facility placing offenders in
 administrative segregation until they reached aged 18, (2) underaged
 offenders kept in a separate institution that housed only
 under-18-year-old offenders, (3) under-18-year-old offenders housed
 together with other young offenders, in one (or more) units within a
 facility that also held offenders older than age 18, and (4) offenders
 under the age of 18 integrated into the correctional facility's
 general population, where housing was assigned for all inmates
 regardless of age. This study grouped together methods 1 through 3 and
 labeled them as "separated," while method 4 defined an
 "integrated" management approach. The size of a correctional
 facility's system was determined by ranking each of the 51
 jurisdictions by their number of inmates, as of December 1997. Those
 with more prisoners than the median were considered "big" systems
 and those with less than the median were deemed "little." This
 categorization was designed to allow researchers to study four
 management approaches for dealing with offenders under the age of 18
 in adult prisons: (1) separated/big, (2) separated/little, (3)
integrated/big, and (4) integrated/little.
description: Demographic variables include the population size
 and region (Northeast, South, Midwest, or West) of each jurisdiction,
 as well as the number and proportion of under-18-year-old offenders
 within each state housed in an adult correctional facility. Also
 present in the file is the location and name of the facility with the
 largest population of inmates under age 18. Additionally, each
 jurisdiction was asked whether they would be willing to participate
further in an on-site interview.
description: Response Rates: The response rate for the telephone surveys was 
100 percent.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Youth Under 18 Years Old in Adult Prisons in the United States, 1997
description: Adult correctional facilities in the United States and the
District of Columbia that housed offenders under the age of 18.
description: The user guide, codebook, and data collection
instrument are provided as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The
PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be
accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat
Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is
provided through the ICPSR Website on the Internet.