37-5-206 - Retention of children committed for penitentiary offenses Transfer to penitentiary Prosecution for escape. - Tennessee Statutes

37-5-206. Retention of children committed for penitentiary offenses Transfer to penitentiary Prosecution for escape.

(a)  Any child committed to the department for an offense punishable by confinement in the penitentiary may be retained in a youth center until such child's nineteenth birthday, or at any time after the child's eighteenth birthday, when found to be incorrigible by the superintendent, subject to agreement between the commissioner of correction and the commissioner of children's services, may be transferred to the penitentiary. The authority for transferring such eighteen (18) years or older children shall be upon warrant issued by the commissioner, such warrant to contain the name of the child, age at conviction and at the transfer, and the offense for which committed. The superintendent shall furnish to the warden of the penitentiary the original commitment papers in the case.

(b)  Any child or inmate sixteen (16) years of age or over, confined in a youth center and who escapes therefrom commits a Class A misdemeanor. The superintendent of the youth center, with the approval of the commissioner, may certify to the district attorney general in the district in which the escape was effected, that such escape has occurred and the facts relating thereto. The child or inmate thus certified as having escaped may be prosecuted as an adult in the court having jurisdiction of the offense, as if the child or inmate were an adult.

[Acts 1955, ch. 127, § 6; impl. am. Acts 1955, ch. 102, § 1; 1963, ch. 264, § 4; impl. am. Acts 1981, ch. 120; T.C.A., § 41-832; Acts 1989, ch. 278, § 62; T.C.A., § 41-5-110; Acts 1996, ch. 1079, § 137.]