NCJ Number
165706
Date Published
May 2000
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This paper reviews the history and operation of the RECLAIM Ohio program, which has decreased both the number and the percentage of juvenile offenders incarcerated in State secure facilities.
Abstract
The RECLAIM Ohio program was devised when it became clear in 1992 that Ohio was using expensive incarceration of juveniles ineffectively. Incarcerating many lower-level offenders had increased institutional overcrowding and limited the ability of the Department of Youth Services (DYS) to keep serious offenders for stays long enough to ensure behavior modification. In response to this circumstance, DYS created a market-driven strategy for the use of juvenile incarceration. RECLAIM Ohio was based on a State promise (codified in the Ohio Revised Code) to pay for a consistent percentage of the State's felony-level juvenile offenders. Under this program, judges still determine the disposition for all felony delinquents; however, the State is committed to pay for a specified percentage of these youthful offenders and provide a secure incarceration service that judges can purchase. This paper explains the funding formula of RECLAIM Ohio, how it was crafted for political viability, and how this new budget and business paradigm has transformed DYS into a market-driven system operated on the model of a for-profit business. Other matters discussed are the pilot program and phase-in of implementation, the evolution of the RECLAIM Ohio budget line item, the program's relationship to the DYS budget, recent budgets, the budget for the coming biennium, and RECLAIM Ohio results.