Despite the fact that recidivism can be reduced by an increase in literacy, little information is available about effective educational programming, especially in reading, for adjudicated youth. A short-term, one-to-one tutoring program using low cost materials proved to be successful in increasing reading performance for 12 adjudicated youth. Tutoring was based upon proven strategies, sufficient time-on-task, and effective implementation. Students improved reading performance by 9 months of instruction during 1 month of instruction on 2 sub-tests of the Gray Oral Reading Test (Wiederholt & Bryant, 1992). Students also increased in rate and accuracy 3 times the expected amount reported in literature. (Contains 2 figures.)