Budgeting issues in criminal justice systems Essay Example for Free

Budgeting issues in criminal justice systems EssayOne of the reasons why send backs still exist despite all overcrowding is the budget dish fall out for the criminal justice administration. But the sudden rise in the number of prisoners posed a occupation when it comes to budgeting. The bind on policies and procedures of correctional facilities operated by the Multnomah County clearly shows that it has been experiencing financial shortage due to faulty budgeting. The article shows that it is very expensive to accommodate a prisoner, which costs $157/day in Multnomah County. This is expensive compared to the rate of jail systems in other counties.This was attributed to the labor contracts which resulted to raised labor costs, extraordinarily high medical costs which lead to high cost of the overall system in jail, ineffective jail staffing pattern, abuse of sick leave, overtime and compensatory time and increase in the Sheriffs budget. Aside from all of these, the Multnoma h County has a very expensive juvenile person detention facility. It costs $401/day to accommodate a juvenile. The article further shows that the Sheriffs Office has respectable budgeting techniques which hid the management practices of the organization.This resulted to difficulty of finding out the different organization functions. Even the district attorneys office has to seek the help of a financial analyst to make sense of the financial precis of the jail system. What the county requires is a political plan called priority-based budgeting. Each de smashment of the jail system must present program offers for the county commissioners to fund. However, any(prenominal) of these program offers are rejected. The Sheriffs office has a total of 66 funding program offers that the county commission has approved.The priority-based budgeting was applied so that the commissioners can make an informed decision from an accurate financial visualise of the different programs. This enable d the commissioners to be knowledgeable in whether funding or rejecting a particular program. The article reason out that the outside help of a financial consultant was necessary to analyze the Sheriffs costs and budgets. It was renowned that it is a natural and understandable inclination of a establishment agency to do the budgeting practices discussed in the article.The DAs office thought that similar practices have been done by other government agencies in the county. It was suggested that the commission should collaborate more with the Sheriff. The county commissioners should understand the acts that they fund so that the problems might not overhaul again. The workgroup of the jail systems should focus on the Sheriffs cost advertiseing and budgeting practices so that they can partake in any decisions to make. The commission should also found a work group that will inspect the jails and report frequently to the commissioners.This work group must consist of representatives from the law enforcement agencies in the county, the County Chair, the County Commissioner, the United States Attorney, the administrator for the national facility at Sheridan, representatives from the business community, a representative from the medical community, the Department of Corrections, an independent financial analyst and the District Attorney. The law also requires that the county should include the state Department of Corrections in every operation of the local jails.However, whatever responsibilities the Department of Corrections is assigned by the law should not be carried out by the Sheriffs Association. The article strongly advises that a healthy relationship must be open up between the county Sheriff and the Board of Commissioners. Any solution to the problems must start from this perspective since all other problems caulescent from a breakdown to that relationship. The other article addressing budgeting issue is titled Will part-time prison solidus crime or co sts? by Nick Morrison.The article says that British Home Secretary David Blunkett proposed that some inmates be given freedom on weekends to relieve the growing population of prisoners in jails. Those inmates who are redoubted could be provided with electronic tags and they could stay out of jail for a month. They could also work during the week and guide the weekend in jail. Many questioned this proposal whether it is a way to fight the crimes or to cut costs, specially Norman Brennan, director of the Victims of Crime Trust.He sees this proposal as the governments admission to castigate in solving crimes, even though Blunkett promised to be tough on car-jackers and phone thieves. Brennan thinks that it has to do with capital problems and not reducing crime why Blunkett allowed this kind of arrangement for the prisoners. It was hard for the government to spend a lot of money in cumbering prisoners. Moreover, Brennan argued that it is more important to keep the prisoners in ja ils and out of the streets to nourish the victims of crimes and the public, even though it is expensive to do so. Apparently, Blunketts proposal did not make this possible.Criminals were allowed on the loose, and they could happen upon again since they have freedom. With the growing population of prisoners in jails, Brennan says that the criminal justice system is no overnight effective. A crisis in the criminal justice system has to appear before people do something to net it. He recognizes that the problems will be harder to dissolve later on. Even more, in that location were less police officers on the beat to prevent crimes even though these crimes have been acquire worse for many years now. The government also has not done something to reduce crime.He couldnt see how Blunketts proposal could solve any of the problems. Brennan mentions that the country has more people inside prisons than any countries in Europe. He says it is so because there are more crimes here than any where else. The government, he adds, has resorted to different measures to solve the rising number of crimes. Sadly, no(prenominal) of these measures worked, and this showed a disgraceful record on crime and law and order. On the other hand, the Howard League for penal Reform agreed with Blunketts proposal. The spokeswoman says that anything to reduce the prison population is a good thing. She added that the programs set to keep the prisoners with a two or three months term away from their criminal behavior are not often available, thats why they offend the second time after they are released. The article recommends that a community penalty is more effective as a form of punishment for the prisoners than sending them over to prison. The article quotes Brennan recommending that the government should deal with the crimes head on rather than making lots of promises and pledges that it cannot meet. People should also be aware of these problems and how serious they are so that they ca n be a part in solving them.Brennan is correct in saying that criminals should be sent to prison whether it is expensive or not. The most(prenominal) important thing to rent here is the protection of the public from these offenders. The government should look more into these problems because this is getting worse every year and it has bad records of crime. The government should also look into the budgeting systems of the federal and local governments. It should consider that budgeting systems can be a part of the ineffective services it offers to the public. Changes in budgeting systems should be an important part in reform.REFERENCESMorrison, Nick. (2002, February 05). Will part-time prison cut crime or costs? Newsquest (North East Ltd. , p. 8. forthcoming at http//yukon. actx. edu2083/libweb/curriculum/do/document? set=topicgroupid=1requestid=conquesttopicresultid=48ts=57673F035D3E975120F685A75E3514BA_1187860483640urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B76740234. The Multn omah County District Attorneys Office. (2006). Independent reassessment of policies and procedures of correctional facilities operated by the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office. Available at http//www. mcda. us/articles/GJ_CORRECTIONAL_FACILITIES_2006. pdf.