The study considered the following: (1) the categorization of offenses by seriousness after discharge from a delinquency commitment program; (2) the relationship of seriousness to the type of program from which the subjects were released; (3) Are youths referred for fewer crimes in the one year following release than during the 1 year prior to commitment? (4) Do youths have fewer adjudications in the one year following release than during the one year prior to commitment? and (5) What are the implications of the study findings for future similar studies? The study group was 4,364 youths released from Florida juvenile delinquency commitment programs between January and June 1990. Demographic data included age at discharge, sex, race, and age at first delinquency referral. The suppression effect reported in this study is a measure of percent change. Overall, referrals were down more than 43 percent, adjudications dropped more than 58 percent in the year after discharge compared to the year prior to placement. While the programs did not eradicate delinquent behavior, youths discharged from the programs exhibited less serious and chronic patterns of offending in the year after release. Future evaluations of the delinquency commitment programs should include suppression effects and seriousness of law violations as additional indicators of program effectiveness. Tables