Data presented were obtained from the Census of Public and Private Juvenile Detention, Correctional and Shelter Facilities; juvenile court statistics from the National Center on Juvenile Justice; and local detention databases. Qualitative data on detention reform activities are from some of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency's projects in juvenile detention centers, including its evaluation of four sites that are participating in the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI). JDAI was inspired by the reform measures taken in Broward County, Fla., in the late 1980s as part of a Federal consent decree. The county was able to decrease its average daily population from 161 youths in 1987- 88 to 88 youths in 1990-91 through the use of alternatives to detention, intake screening, and assistance to the county's public defender services. Capital improvements also fostered better conditions of confinement. The detention reform efforts in Broward County and the JDAI sites show that the process is multidimensional and complicated; it can produce positive results as well as unintended consequences. Although national statistics show large increases in juvenile detention across the country, producing facility overcrowding, the JDAI sites were not part of this trend. The sites have been successful in targeting certain groups of youth for special case processing or alternative-to- detention programming. Detention reform strategies have also focused attention on this neglected segment of the juvenile justice system and have led to a general improvement in services to court-involved youth. 8 figures, 6 notes, and 30 references