Because of severe overcrowding in its institutions, Ohio devised a way of motivating counties not to send juveniles to State facilities. Before RECLAIM was implemented, counties were able to send an unlimited number of juveniles to institutions without any fiscal repercussions; the State, not the individual counties, paid all incarceration costs. RECLAIM pools all Department of Youth Services funds, and counties are now charged for each juvenile they commit to an institution. Also, the State provides funding for counties to develop and operate their own community-based programs. The pilot phase of the program, which began in 1993, has allowed selected counties to begin the RECLAIM program 1 year before it was to be implemented statewide in January 1995. The assessment of the program's pilot phase focused on whether the pilot counties reduced commitments to institutions compared to a group of non-pilot counties and whether the pilot counties were able to provide community-based programs for their youths. The findings show progress in achieving both of these goals. 3 figures, 2 tables, 10 notes, and 28 references