It was belatedly discovered that ten teens who were sentenced to serve time for gang-raping a fellow middle school student were confined in the same jail cell as adult convicts at the Cheonan Correctional Facility. 

According to what reps from Cheonan Correctional Facility and the defendants' attorney stated, Daejeon District Court had sentenced the ten teenage assailants to jail time ranging from 2 years 6 months to as long as 6 years. As prisoners still on trial, the teen convicts were incarcerated at Cheonan Correctional Facility from the end of November in 2014 until March of 2015, for a total of around two months. 

During these two months, the teens were incarcerated in the same cell as adult convicts. 

Any underage inmates are supposed to be separated from the other inmates that are above the age of 19 (the legal in South Korea); Cheonan Correctional Facility had violated this protocol by placing the teenage convicts in the same cell as the adult convicts. 

Regarding this issue, a rep from the facility stated, "It's right to separate them. There is a separate section to hold underage inmates but after taking into consideration the number of crimes related to this incident, we prioritized the application of separating the convicts based on the degree of their crimes and placed them in the adult convict cells where we place those who committed their first-time offenses or a criminal negligence." 

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Even after hearing the facility's explanation, some people still expressed serious concern over the teenagers being locked up in the same cell as the adult inmates. 

One of the defendants' lawyers had reportedly argued, "They were indeed indicted but it's wrong to place the teens in the same cell as adult convicts." 

On the other hand, the courts reasoned, "[The defendants] ignored the physical and mental pain suffered by the victim and just settled with the victim's parents, and they only looked out for their own well-being," giving the grounds behind their sentence. 

Netizens seem to agree with the court's sentence, commenting, "Good. I hope they were raped by the adult convicts while they were at the facility....you trash..." "Rape is considered the worst, most vile kind of crime at correctional facilities; I hope they suffered a bit. They made the right decision at the facility," and, "They did the right thing. It seems like a good idea to place the teenage rapists with first degree criminals. Very good." 

Image: Yonhap