For the State Fiscal Year 2004-2005 biennium budget, fiscal realities required DYS to restructure RECLAIM so that the infrastructure costs for the courts, community corrections facilities and institutions were stable. The challenge was to maintain funding for all of these entities consistent with recent fiscal years, while retaining incentives similar to those already in place for the courts.

To address this need for change, DYS worked with juvenile court judges and other juvenile court staff, including a budget committee. The result for State Fiscal Year 2005 was an annual formula that preserved much of the flexibility and incentives of RECLAIM (described in the How RECLAIM Works section). In order to facilitate a smooth transition, for State Fiscal Year 2004, RECLAIM funding to courts was based on funding earned in State Fiscal Year 2003.

Beginning with State Fiscal Year 2005, the juvenile court RECLAIM Ohio allocations are based on a four-year average of felony adjudications, with deductions for DYS and community corrections facility bed day usage in the prior year. Unlike the original version of RECLAIM, the amount allocated is the actual amount a court receives. There is no longer a per diem charge for beds used during the current year.

Here's how the formula works:

Under the formula, each court is given a number of credits based on the court's four-year average of youth adjudicated for felony offenses. Those credits are reduced by one credit for each chargeable DYS bed day used during the previous year and 2/3 credit for each chargeable community corrections facility bed day used during the previous year. Each court's percentage of the remaining credits statewide translates into that court's percentage of the total RECLAIM funds allocated to the courts.

Public Safety Beds: Chargeable bed days do not include a category of commitments called public safety beds. A court's RECLAIM funding is not reduced as a result of youth in public safety beds, which are defined in Ohio Revised Code section 5139.01(A)(13). These include all Category One offenses and all Category Two offenses except for Aggravated Robbery and Aggravated Burglary:

• Aggravated Murder
• Attempted Aggravated Murder
• Murder
• Attempted Murder

• Kidnapping
• Rape
• Voluntary Manslaughter
• Involuntary Manslaughter (only Felony 1 is a public safety bed)
• Felonious Sexual Penetration
• Aggravated Arson
• Aggravated Robbery (not a public safety bed)
• Aggravated Burglary (not a public safety bed)

• Complicity to all of the Category One and Category Two offenses except Aggravated Burglary and Aggravated Robbery.
• 3-year gun specification for all Category One and Category Two offenses except Aggravated Burglary; in the case of a 3-year gun specification for Aggravated Robbery, only the gun specification is a public safety bed, not the Aggravated Robbery offense itself
• Youth serving discipline time
• Youth serving more than 30 days on a parole revocation following supervised release from DYS, unless the underlying offense was a public safety bed
• Youth from counties which adjudicate less than one-tenth of one percent of the total number of youth adjudicated for felony offenses statewide

• Aggravated Robbery; however, if a youth used a gun in the commission of the act, the 3-year commitment for the gun specification is a public safety bed
• Aggravated Burglary
• 3-year gun specification on Aggravated Burglary, Felonious Assault or any other offense not specifically listed above
• 1-year commitment for ?possession of a firearm?
• Any gun specification other than the 3-year gun specification that is detailed in Ohio Revised Code sections 5139.01(A)(13)(e), 2152.17(A) and (B), and 2941.145
• Attempt of any Category Two offense
• Conspiracy to commit any offense, whether a Category One, Two or other offense

RECLAIM Ohio and the Youth Services Grant together make up the DYS Subsidy Grant. Youth Services Grant funds have been in existence since 1981 and are known as the 'base' portion of the Subsidy Grant because, unlike the RECLAIM 'variable' funds, their allocations do not vary based on the number of felony adjudications and bed days used. The Youth Services Grant is allocated annually to juvenile courts based on a formula that used county population:

Each court is allocated a base amount of $50,000. The remainder of the line item is then allocated to courts with a population of more than 25,000 on a per capita basis.

The funds received through RECLAIM and the Youth Services Grant can be used for a vast array of treatment, intervention, diversion and prevention programs. Examples of such programs include day treatment, alternative schools, intensive probation, electronic monitoring and residential treatment. The primary limitation on the use of Subsidy Grant funds is that they cannot be used to supplant local funds. In addition, RECLAIM funds cannot be used for construction or renovation, while a limited amount of Youth Services Grant funding can be used for such expenditures.

Annually, the juvenile courts submit one Subsidy Grant funding application that addresses use of both RECLAIM Ohio and Youth Services Grant funds.

Each year, more than 100,000 youth are served by programs funded through RECLAIM Ohio and/or the Youth Services Grant.  Based on reported expenditures by the courts in Fiscal Year 2007, the top program areas used were residential treatment; probation and intensive probation; restitution, community service and work detail; monitoring and surveillance; mental health counseling; shelter care; and diversion.

Thanks to RECLAIM Ohio, more youth today are being served locally where families can participate more fully in their treatment. Institutions are less crowded, and the Department is focusing its treatment and rehabilitative efforts on the more serious, repetitive, felony-level youth. In fact, DYS population is down from a high of more than 2,600 in May 1992 to less than 1,800 in January 2008.