Cutback Management in Criminal Justice - A Participant's Handbook for the Research Utilization Workshop

• NCJ Number: 81806
• Author(s): H J Miron; M D Corrigan; C H Levine; E J Pesce
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 265 pages
• Contract Number(s): J-LEAA-014-81
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Corporate Author: University Research Corporation
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: National Institute of Justice Criminal Justice Research Utilization Program (formerly National Criminal Justice Executive Training Program)

Annotation

This manual includes the content and exercises used in the workshop series on cutback management in criminal justice; the workshop was developed by the National Institute of Justice to help criminal justice policymakers and executives improve their management and administration during periods of fiscal stress.

Abstract

The workshop is based on the assumption that fiscal stress and cutback management are not short-term problems that local governments can address in a piecemeal manner but are long-term problems that require large-scale strategic choices, new skills, and new behavior on the part of government executives. The workshop includes 14 sessions which are divided into 5 sections. An introductory session summarizes the problems to be addressed and describes the workshop's goals, curriculum, and expected outcomes. The next two sessions present a more detailed analysis of the meaning and impact of fiscal stress on the financing and management of government agencies. Fiscal stress is defined as the gap between the supply of available revenues and the demand for criminal justice services. The concept and methodology of cutback management are next presented. Critical steps which agencies must follow to reach the dual goals of lower levels of resource consumption and higher levels of productivity are analyzed. Participants practice these steps in several interdependent sessions in this session. Productivity improvement programs for law enforcement executives, prosecutors, defenders, judges, court executives, and corrections executives are reviewed. The availability of alternative, tested methods of service delivery and the need for new types of collaboration across the boundaries of criminal justice agencies are emphasized. The last three sessions offer participants a structured opportunity to apply the lessons, results, and insights of previous sessions, by guiding them through the writing of plans applicable to their own agencies. Workshop exercises, forms, figures, tables, and space for notes are provided. (Author summary modified)