Criminal justice leadership practices and organizational effectiveness

Criminal Justice Leadership

Identify two types of ethics and explain their role in criminal justice organizations. Support your responses with resources.

Ethics are concerned with the issues of right and wrong and provide a framework for moral living. Ethics in the criminal justice system is an integral part of police work. Ethical considerations are paramount to decisions involving discretion and a strong moral foundation suits police work well. Banks (2010) notes that knowledge of ethics provides people an opportunity to analyze assumptions and weigh options. Two types of ethics that have particular importance in criminal justice are normative ethics and ethical absolutism.

Normative ethics

Normative ethics is fundamental to proper and prudent decisions made by personnel in the criminal justice system. Banks (2010) writes that normative ethics involve taking into account the range of moral issues in an area and that a person should always act morally, having deduced the proper course of action from reason. This ethical standard is important in the field of criminal justice as it requires actors and agents to use reasoning and logical faculties to arrive at proper codes of conduct.

Ethical absolutism

Ethical absolutism suggests that there is an external moral code applicable to all, notwithstanding personal feelings or judgments; that moral principles apply to everyone, everywhere all the time, without exceptions (Holmes, 2008). Cook (2007) observes that the moral absolutist is often noted in the field of criminal justice as police officers may perceive themselves uniquely qualified to pass judgment on others.

2. List and explain three types of budgets formats. Which type of budget do you feel would be the best used in a Corrections organization. Why?

McLean and Brayley (2009), in reviewing several varying budget formats observe that object classification, or line item budgets, are the most common form of budgeting formats. Among the benefits of the object classification budgeting system is that it provides for a category base and allows classification of budget by type of expenditure made. While object classification budgets are comparatively easy to create and maintain, have uniformity and are relatively easy to standardize with pre-determined categories, there are some disadvantages. Among the disadvantages of object classification budgets are that they aren't as flexible as other types of budgets and contain categories that are not amenable to providing details (McLean and Brayley, 2009).

Zero-Based Budgeting involves allocating budget resources based on need, not past expenditures. Essentially, this type of budgeting system provides organizations with a method of analyzing the effectiveness of budgeting allocations to determine if resources are justified. While zero-based budgeting allows organizations to minimize bias from budget decisions, it requires a top-down decision making process that may not be well suited for all criminal justice organizations (Caltax.org, 2010).

Incremental budgeting allows budgeting to be incrementally increased or decreased based on prior performances. While this allows for some flexibility for adding or removing budgeting allocations based on needs, it does not allow for changing circumstances and promotes a budget mentality of "use it or lose it."

I believe that the zero-based budgeting format is well-suited for criminal justice organizations as it seems to allow policy and decision makers, not low level functionaries, to make decisions based on need.

3. Discuss how due process mandates impacts the hiring and firing of employees. Explain some detrimental consequences that could occur if due process mandates aren't followed in hiring, disciplinary actions and firing of criminal justice employees.

Simply stated, due process in the hiring and firing phases of employment are federally mandated to avoid litigation and to provide all candidates with fairness and equality in decision making. Civil Right Act of 1964 (Title VII) prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin and sex (Archives.gov, 2010). Should a hiring committee or authority disregard these federally protected categories, liability will attach and, perhaps, adverse civil judgments may ensue.

Employees in the criminal justice system are afforded all of the due process rights and privledges available to all employees. The benefit, of course, is that criminal justice employees are not subject to the whim of superiors and have the ability to utilize due process protections to avoid termination. Given the duties of law enforcement officers and others in the criminal justice system, given the need for discretion, for strong moral compass and sound ethical decision making capabilities, it is imperative that criminal justice organizations be able to properly discipline and terminate employees when trust is violated. Without this disciplinary ability, law enforcement agencies would be bound to honor the employment of corrupt, discriminatory, abuse or otherwise unfit officers from public service. Clearly, then, while the process may languish, it is an effective method for both hiring and firing.

4. Discuss the impact of law suits on criminal justice organizations. What can be done to lessen the chances of law suits being filed in criminal justice organizations?