Confinement rules for juvenile offenders

Federal law strongly discourages keeping children confined with adult offenders or suspects. The law requires physical and visual separation of juveniles and adults. Usually a child is to be confined with adults for no more than six hours while awaiting a transfer to a juvenile facility. Since the juvenile court system is meant to rehabilitate rather than punish, juveniles who are incarcerated are sent to places very different from adult jails. Many juvenile facilities are more like an ordinary residence than a prison.