Trends fostering the use of psychiatric hospitalization of adolescents include parents' demand for institutional placement, sparse alternative placement resources for both parents and the public sector, the deinstitutionalization movement and the resulting shift of populations to other institutions of social control, the entrepreneurial expansion of private social control facilities, and the use of the medical model in addressing juvenile deviance. A mental hospital system has developed which mixes a variety of youth in trouble in a relatively class-segregated manner. In this system, the middle-class youths enjoy fewer procedural protections and are more vulnerable to lengthy institutionalization than are lower-class adolescents. Forces running counter to the current trend are also developing, however. Legal scholars are becoming more interested in the subject, and the writings of some suggest a new advocacy. This legal interest and the general movement for children's rights could have a countering impact. Insurance companies are also becoming more concerned about costs. More attention to all types of asylums is needed, regardless of ownership and name used. A data table, footnotes, and 42 references are supplied.