Court evaluations, new commitments, and technical violations are three ways in which youth may be admitted to the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice, the state's juvenile corrections agency. This article is the first of a three-part series examining the use of incarceration to address juvenile delinquency in Illinois. It examines admissions to IDJJ for court evaluations, focusing on what changes in admission trends have occurred and how these changes have impacted the profile of youth entering IDJJ for court evaluations.