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In addition to the figures given by Deputy Gage, Attorney Colton advised that the actual numbers of all crimes for which a juvenile was arrested rose from 72,600 in 1982-83 to 140,468 in 1992-93. The greater percentage of those crimes were committed by juveniles between the ages of 14 and 18 years, and the greatest increase was in violent crimes. Additionally, while there has been a tremendous increase in violent crimes committed by juveniles in the last five years, there was only a 3 percent increase in the number of juveniles committed by judges to the HRS criminal programs. Currently the juvenile justice system operates through the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS). It is the consensus of the Sheriffs' Association and the State Attorney that HRS is a social service agency and not a criminal justice system. HRS is underfunded and a number of programs were passed on paper, but were not funded. State Attorney Colton explained that legislation and rules instituted by the HRS hinder judges from committing juveniles to a criminal program. He explained that when a juvenile commits a crime, even a serious crime, that juvenile is not arrested but is taken into custody very briefly and contact is made with HRS where a decision is reached as to whether the juvenile meets the criteria to be committed. Because of the legislative restrictions and shortages of space and funds, very few juveniles are detained and they are released to virtually no supervision at home. When they appear in Court, the juveniles have no respect for the Court because they realize that the judge's hands are tied. They laugh at the procedure because there are no consequences to the system. The juvenile commits many serious crimes before being eligible to go into a residential HRS program. The proposed legislation would segregate the 13 -year-olds in an effort to convince them upon their first contact with the law, through programs and counseling, to turn themselves around. Juveniles 14 to 18 years of age would be in a separate category and from arrest up through the time of trial, they would be handled within the adult justice system. The reason for including ages 14 to 18 in a separate category is because statistics show that 60 percent of the 140,000 serious crimes were committed by juveniles in this age group. Included in the program would be education, drug counseling and treatment, as well as instilling respect and discipline in those juveniles who have some hope of being useful to society. Commissioner Bird asked whether this type of program has been tried in other states, and State Attorney Colton responded that other states have gone even further by ruling that juveniles who commit violent crimes will be treated automatically as adults. The 9 JAN 311994 BOOK 91 NMU- 625