Riverside County Probation Department Criminal Justice Organizations

Criminal Justice Organizations
The entire criminal justice system is made up of numerous organizations which are inherently independent. Some of the criminal justice organizations in various counties include, but they are not limited to, Juvenile Justice Department, Reentry and Integration Department, Probation Department, etc. Although independent, these criminal justice organizations cannot operate in isolation. This is more so the case given the complex and multifaceted nature of the criminal justice system.
County-wide criminal justice organization: Riverside County Probation Department
The County Probation Department, which I manage as the Chief Probation Officer, has three core missions; serving courts, protecting the community, and changing lives (Riverside County, 2018). In seeking to fulfill its mission, the department interacts with various other agencies within the system. These include, but they are not limited to, Riverside County Sheriff, the Law Offices of the County Public Defender, and the Office of the District Attorney. While these are, in essence, county criminal justice organizations, it is important to note that there are various other agencies outside the criminal justice system with which the County Probation Department ought to closely work with. These include, but they are not limited to, Child Support Services, Mental Health Services, Public Social Services, and CFD/AD Administration.
It is important to note that management in one agency can indeed impact other agencies’ performance within the criminal justice system. A good example could be in the case of a delinquency case whereby the case is prosecuted by the District Attorney. A Public Defender is then appointed for the minor by the court. Later on, the minor’s supervision is overseen and supervised by the Probation Officer. Inefficiencies in any one of these departments/agencies could negatively impact the ability of another department to fulfill its mandate.
In essence, cooperation between agencies could be hampered by the said agencies’ political nature. In a study seeking to highlight collaboration in criminal justice, Hollis (2016) found out that poor collaboration and cooperation between agencies came about as a consequence of i) agencies viewing themselves as competitors as opposed to collaborators, ii) poor communication between agencies, and iii) failure to hold agencies accountable for commitments made. In seeking to address lack of cooperation between agencies, these are the factors that ought to be taken into consideration.
To eliminate the competitive spirit, interagency cooperation ought to be encouraged such that individual agencies are not allowed to take credit for accomplishments made. This could be done by way of encouraging joint statements. The aims and objectives of various organizations also ought to be harmonized. This would eliminate conflict, and thus opportunities for competition. Next, when it comes to communication, there is need to ensure that the various organizational undertakings are harmonized and coordinated to enhance efficiency and eliminate redundancy. According to Hollis (2016), there have been situations in which agencies, due to poor communication, end up doing the same job. In the words of the author, “the development of a common language is essential in enhancing communication between groups, agents, and organizations if collaborations and partnerships are to be successful” (Hollis, 2016, p. 9). This could be achieved through the formulation and implementation of a system of continued information exchange (Stojkovic, Kalinich, and Klofas, 2014).
There is also the issue of failure to hold agencies accountable for commitments made. According to one of the respondents in the Hollis study, “with so many different people, so many different organizations involved, how can we possibly hold people accountable? It is too easy for people to say, ‘I expected so-and-so to do this’” (Hollis, 2016). Thus poor accountability effectively gets in the way of cooperation between agencies. This could be remedied via the development of an interagency agreement of sorts proclaiming a common line of action and shared commitment towards the accomplishment of specific objectives.




















References
Hollis, M.E. (2016). Community-Based Partnerships: Collaboration and Organizational Partnerships in Criminal Justice. Journal of Family Strengths, 16(2), 1-17.
Riverside County. (2018). Home. Retrieved from https://rcprob.us/index.html
Stojkovic, S., Kalinich, D. & Klofas, J. (2014). Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration and Management (6th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.