According to the Justice Department, crime among youth is on the rise.  Gangs and gun violence are becoming a major problem among that group.

In part 2 of the series "Youth and Violence," WCBI News sat down and talked with a mother whose son was just a teenager when he found out he would have to serve 17-years in prison.
 
Recently, there have been several cases of teenagers getting in trouble with the law, the most recent headlines where numerous teens went to prison proves that point.
   
In the last few years, there have been several violent crimes involving teenagers, 16-year old Chris Fair was sentenced to life without parole in prison a few years ago after taking the life of a police officer.
   
Lesa Williams is concerned about the number of teens who are committing violent crimes.

Her son Samuel McCarter was 18 when he went to prison, now he's serving 17 years for armed robbery.
   
"It blew me away," said Williams.

He didn't have a prior record, she believes he got got up with the wrong crowd.

"I still don't know what happened, why it happened and I still don't understand it because that wasn't like him," Williams added.

Lowndes County Youth Court Judge Beverley Franklin is seeing a number of females go to jail for aggravated assaults.

The economy is also causing more youth to break into homes
   
"A number of property crimes, burglaries especially, not robberies so much, burglary, we've had cases where they burglarized 30 different places," said Franklin.

So who's to blame for the number of youth committing crime?

"Two links in the court system that are missing, one is the parent, and one is some long term facilities to help these children who have major behavioral problems," Franklin replied.

Williams says, one thing she wishes she would have done with her son more was develop a better form of communication.
  
"I really think that this is where we're going wrong with some of our children, we're giving them something that they want so that when we cannot give it to them, they're going to go out there and take it," said Williams.

Next week, WCBI will take a look at programs that are teaching students about leadership, it's just one way to keep kids on the right track so they don't end up in the system.