In accordance with recommendations of the United Nations (1985) as well as of the Council of Europe, many countries now consider imprisonment for juveniles an extreme measure to be used only if other punishments fail. Juvenile prison terms of indeterminate lengths (depending on the inmates' behavior) are becoming rare; they have been entirely abolished in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Great Britain. If a prison sentence is unavoidable, a trend towards shorter terms has become visible in the Scandinavian countries, England, France, the Netherlands, Austria, and Switzerland. Some countries (for example, Denmark, Finland, Greece, and Yugoslavia) even choose less severe punishments for young adults between 18 and 21 than for adult offenders. The improvement of the judicial status of young inmates has also become a legal concern in Europe, especially since many countries do not possess sufficient guarantees to assure the basic human rights of juveniles. A bibliography is included