Subject to appropriations by the general assembly, the department of rehabilitation and correction shall award subsidies to eligible municipal corporations, counties, and groups of counties pursuant to the subsidy programs described in division (A)(1) of section 5149.31 of the Revised Code only in accordance with criteria that the department shall specify in rules adopted pursuant to Chapter 119. of the Revised Code. The criteria shall be designed to provide for subsidy awards only on the basis of demonstrated need and the satisfaction of specified priorities. The criteria shall require that priority shall be given to the funding of community corrections programs that reduce the number of persons committed to state correctional institutions or the number of persons committed to county, multicounty, municipal, municipal-county, or multicounty-municipal jails or workhouses.
R.C. § 5149.36