Organizational and Administrative Strategies in Criminal Justice

Organizational & Administrative Strategies in Criminal Justice

Discuss the influence of politics on a corrections or law enforcement budget.

Politics in a nation plays an important part in management of major institutions run by the government. The politicians represent the opinions of the people and enacting these is necessary by the government. Politics influences the budgetary allocations of many state run institutions. Political influence on correctional enforcement budget can have negative or positive effect on the institution. Laws that favor decongestion that is among the biggest problems in the correctional and law enforcement budget is positive. The resources issued by the government govern the staff working in the institutions. Politics that favors other forms of disciplinary action aimed at reducing crime in the society ensures that the institution have adequate resources to fund their operations. Politics also influences the living standards of the staff and the criminals apprehended by the law enforces. The cost of ensuring that inmates live in humane condition is a topic discussed by politicians. This influences the cost of operating the institutions thus a significant increase in the budget. Political leaders are involved in law making in a nation. The leaders in the House of Representatives make and amend laws that directly influence the correctional and law enforcement agencies. The budget of this institutions increases in expenditure once new laws are made as the legislature.

2. Discuss your understanding of the prevalent issues that cause criminal justice administrators struggles with keeping within their operational budgets.

Most institutions tend not to abide to the budgetary allocations by the government resulting to the inefficiency of the organizations. This result to significant budget deficit carried forward to the following year. Many prevailing issues significantly affect the criminal justice administration ability to stick to their operational budget. The changing nature of crime is a significant factor affecting how criminal justice administrators operate. Crime has become sophisticated with criminals using the latest technology which the law enforces lack. The criminals can update their technology regularly due to the ability of the criminal activity to generate revenue. The law enforcers lack resources and have to depend on the funds allocated by government. The need to employ investigators that will cover all the evidence required to apprehend a criminal is also expensive. The criminal justice enforcers have to ensure that the state has sufficient evidence to convict. Collection of evidence is thus through and time consuming thus the increased expenditure. In serious criminal cases, the administrators have to consider witness protection that adds to the cost of law enforcement. Lawsuits against the criminal administration also increases the operation cost. Training of staff to ensure that the organization operates effectively increases the operational cost (Stojkovic, Kalinich & Klofas, 2012).

3. What are some of the latest developments in less-than-lethal weapons for law enforcement and corrections?

The staff working in the correctional facilities needs to be armed depending on the nature of the criminals held. The equipment can be lethal and less than lethal weapons. Criminals arrested for violent crimes are held in very secure correctional facilities. Permission on lethal weapons use occurs when the guards face lethal danger during a riot or escaping of the prisoners. Non-lethal weapons like clubs purpose entails maintain order and stop fights in the correctional centers. The less than lethal weapons incapacitate temporary, confuse or cause delay when a situation arises. Developments in the use of less than lethal weapons have been on the increase with many institutions using this form of weapons. The use has expanded to airplanes where the use of lethal force can affect innocent passengers. The area has also benefited from an increase in investment by the government to ensure criminals apprehension. The program has also benefited from additional research into safer non-lethal weapons. The side effects of the use of non-lethal weapons have been reduced though the use of research that has reduced lawsuits (Davies, Croall & Tyrer, 2005).

WEB FIELD TRIP MODULE 8

The first article is on criminal justice research and deals with conceptualizing criminal justice theory. The article evaluates various criminal justice theories and their evolution with time. Criminal justice theories are useful in evaluation of crime in the society. The administrators of criminal justice are able to handle criminal cases by understanding the criminal justice theories. The site is related to the theories coved in the module as it evaluates criminal justice. The administrators of criminal justice can understand their duties in delivery of justice in the organization. The site evaluates the various components of the criminal justice system and evaluates how the theories of criminal justice affect each component. The method used by the research is evaluating the way the criminal justice theories affect the operations of the whole system. The research covers theories formulated from the early fifties and evaluates their evolution to date by classifying the criminal justice theories (Conceptualizing criminal justice theory 1999).