Priorities of Criminal Justice Agency Budget
With the increase in crime rates in recent years, the criminal justice agency budget is streamlined to reduce the crime rate. The priorities addressed in the criminal justice agency budget vary from state to the other. The first priority is the personnel. Personnel includes agents, intelligence analysts, Attorney, Correctional officers, and others. The other priority is litigation, which includes the National Security Division. Another priority is prisons and detention functions. Another priority is administration technology and other support functions (Jackson et al. 2015). The last priority is the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and Office on Violence Against Women.
Budget is important in identification and meeting needs beyond pay, benefits, and overtime. The budget has two main functions, which are controlling and planning. The planning function brings out ideas and plans unquantifiable terms. In the early stages of the planning framework for control is created. The framework includes; defined lines of responsibility, sets up a timetable, defined lines of responsibility. Through this, needs beyond pay, benefits, and overtime are better met and identified.
Although the budget document has many advantages to the criminal justice agency, it also has various shortcomings. The lower level management and employees might buck the system through the provision of inaccurate estimates of future cost and revenues (Kappeler and Potter 2017). Another shortcoming of the budget document is that it does not eliminate or take over the place of management. Another shortcoming of the budget document is that the planning process is not exact. It uses approximations and judgments, which may not be 100% exact.
I recommend that additional justification to assist taxpayers in better assess the needs and benefits of the budget request is the criminal justice agency’s priority goals. The priority of the Criminal Justice Agency is to counter incidents of mass violence, dismantle gangs, address the illegal immigration issue, combat cybercrime, elderly protection from fraud, and lastly, fight against illegal opioids.
References
Kappeler, V. E., & Potter, G. W. (2017). The mythology of crime and criminal justice. Waveland Press.
Jackson, B. A., Russo, J., Hollywood, J. S., Silberglitt, R., & Woods, D. (2015). Fostering innovation in community and institutional corrections: Identifying high-priority technology and other needs for the US corrections sector. Rand Corporation.