Juvenile justice reform in Illinois in the late 1990s and early 2000s was begun by a group of juvenile justice advocacy organizations and agencies. Initial efforts began in Chicago and spread throughout the State. They included the expansion of community-based restorative justice programs and the monitoring and inspection of juvenile correctional facilities. A major statewide reform effort was launched in November 2004 when the Illinois legislature passed the Redeploy Illinois law. Under Redeploy Illinois, the State funds county community-based alternatives to incarceration if the community-based programs reduce the number of juvenile incarcerations by 15 percent. Counties must submit plans for diverting youth from the Illinois Department of Corrections and expand their local community-based treatment capacity. There are financial penalties for counties that do not meet the 25 percent incarceration-reduction goal. Three of the four pilot sites have exceeded their 25-percent reduction in the incarceration of juveniles. Another major reform effort was the creation in November 2005 of a new cabinet-level agency called the Department of Juvenile Justice. This department is responsible for stemming the trend that treats juveniles as adults in criminal justice processing by creating a new treatment-oriented culture for juvenile offenders. A broader juvenile justice reform initiative has been mounted by the MacArthur Foundation, which has announced that Illinois, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Washington State will be the focus of a new "Models for Change" initiative that will provide models for how to achieve successful juvenile justice reform. 6 references