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Archive for January, 2011

Tight Budgets Will Influence Jails and Prisons Operations

January 25th, 2011

The title of this article is self-explanatory. Of course tight budgets will influence the operations of criminal justice agencies. The more important questions are these. How severely will the operations be influenced and for how long?

 

Throughout my many years in the field of criminal justice, I have lived through many instances of tight budgets. In the old days we survived these budgets cuts by tweaking this and that, not filling vacant positions (hiring freeze), shutting off lights, taking every other fluorescent light bulb out, and canceling all travel, etc.

 

My concern now is that governmental bodies are in reality running out of cash to operate criminal justice agencies, especially correctional facilities. While there is a great deal of rhetoric by our politicians at every level of government, as of the writing of this article, nothing substantive has been presented to solve the nation’s (world’s) economic problems.

The differences between the budget crises that I experienced and today’s budget crises are these:

 

Ø The duration of this budget crisis promises to be far longer than any of those I experienced.

 

Ø Additionally, when the economy does start to come back, criminal justice operations, especially corrections, will be the last to enjoy it.

 

Ø There will be the loss and/or serious reduction of federal and state grants.

 

Ø Not being prepared could prove to be disastrous.

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Is Your Mailroom Your Facility’s Achilles Heal

January 9th, 2011

Is Your Mailroom Your Achilles Heal

Learning from Others

Once again other people’s misfortunes can help us get prepared for another possible emergency situation (s). United State Postal Offices have experienced flammable packages being sent through the USPS to governmental officials. In all of these instances, the facilities had to be evacuated and some employees were slightly injured.

What can anyone operating any type of a criminal justice facility learn from these events? I have put together checklist to help CJ facilities prepare for similar events or events that could be even more serious.

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