Criminal Justice Essay, Research Paper

This paper will describe my understanding of the text and of the lectures

provided in the class. Unlike most classes, where I understood only my view of

the text, this class was geared so each student would understand each other?s

view. 3 An organization is a collective that has some boundary and internal

structure that engages in activities related to some complex set of goals.

Members of organizations attempt to meet their psychological, ego and emotional

needs within the organization. Criminal justice organizations are particularly

unique compared to other public or private sector organizations because of the

governmental granted authority. Management within these organizations can be

defined as the process by which the elements of a group are integrated,

coordinated and/or utilized so as to efficiently achieve the organization?s

objectives. In Law enforcement and correctional organizations, the front line

officers manage people. This is especially true in the control of inmates. In

these organizations, we must consider the hierarchy to be inverted. The front

line officers, not limited to sergeants and lieutenants, influence the direction

of the organization. Leaders in criminal justice establish direction by

developing a vision of the future, align people through shared values and

vision, and motivate and inspire people to move them toward the shared vision.

Leaders will challenge existing processes and systems, focus on the future of

the basic assumptions, values, and beliefs and create the basis for structural

or programmatic change. 4 Conversely, leadership in corrections is often more

complex. Prison and jail overcrowding, along with the increasing number of

geriatric, mentally ill and an influx of younger and more violent inmates

requires the managers of the organization to increase the training and

motivation of line officers in order to deal with problems. In law enforcement

agencies, leaderships must recognize the need for more community policing

programs. These criminal justice organizations must look inside themselves and

adapt change in order to meet their goals and objectives. The goals of

organizations not only provide direction but also serve as constraints or

limits. An example in the criminal justice model would be for an agency to make

more arrests to meet the public outcry, but also to insure the judicial and

correctional systems handle the increase in business. Organizations have very

common structural dimensions. But some models are different, such as centralized

and decentralized. In the centralized hierarchy of organizations, the decisions

or personnel actions, planning, formulation of policies and procedures,

adjudication of conflicts and other significant issues are made from the top. In

decentralized organizations, the decision on these major issues is routinely

made throughout the organization. Whether an organization is centralized or

decentralized mostly depends on the type of agency and the beliefs of the top

managers. This decision depends on the expertise of all the managers and the

staff personnel. 5 Mission statements, if properly understood and accepted by

organized personnel, is the framework by which an organization will operate. A

mission statement can be defined as a statement or description of an

organization?s common purpose and continuing purpose for existing

responsibility of it?s client or constituents, at least by implicating it?s

ideology, values and operation?s principals. An example of a mission statement

by a business may be: (1) Quality comes first (2) Customers are the focus of

everything we do. (3) Continuous improvement is essential to everything we do.

(4) Employee involvement is our way of life. (5) Dealers and suppliers are our

partners. (6) Integrity is never compromised. An example of a criminal justice

organization may be: ? The mission of the department is to safely incarcerate

convicted felons; to keep inmates secure, safe from physical and psychological

harm and deterioration; and And to provide inmates with opportunities for a

successful, crime-free reentry into Into society, while providing a safe, secure

and stress-free work environment for Staff.? Even though, both are different

types of mission statements; both have one thing in common ? ?Quality.?

Mission statements can drive policy, procedures and the different structures of

organizations, whether public or private. 6 Communication can be define as glue

for organizations. It will create a coordinated effort to achieve attainment of

goals and objectives. Poor communication, however, can result in many management

problems for it. If directions are not clear and well communicated, subordinates

will inadvertently disobey the meaning of the directive. Managers must be sure

when a directive is not followed if the employee was wrong or if the directive

to the employee was poorly communicated. A directive, whether spoken or written,

is one person sending information to another. This process if referred to as

encoding and decoding. Words are our most familiar means of sending messages to

others. However, the message we intend to send and the way out message received

may differ drastically. Many communication barriers may exist which may cloud or

distort the meaning of the message. Communication barriers definitely exist

within the criminal justice system. Police officers and courts and lawyers have

differing views of offenders. Police officers arrest offenders whom they view as

probably guilty, whereas the court system assumes the offender is innocent until

proven guilty. An important move towards improving communication in criminal

justice agencies and in the criminal justice system as a whole, is for agencies

to move away from ?boss-centered management and towards subordinate-centered

management.? 7 One of the most difficult issues in the criminal justice

systems, especially the corrections departments, is motivation. What really

motivates people? Some theorists define it as a state of mind. This state of

mind will cause the employee to exhibit certain behaviors. Some say it?s the

?psychological contract between the individual and the work to be performed.

One interesting portion of the text discusses the ?need theory.? The need

theory states that all people have needs, both physical and psychological, which

effect their behavioral patterns. As the great psychologist, T. Maslow argued,

people have 5 basic needs: (1) physiological needs ? food, water and other

?must have? things in order to survive; (2) the need for safety and

security; (3) belonging needs ? the desire to be loved; (4) self actualization

needs (5) higher-order needs, which include sense of belonging and esteem. The

rank and file workers consider the lower level needs, as most important, but

most organizational managers perceive the higher level needs as the most

important. While reading the material in the text and reviewing my own

organizations mission statement, the path?goal and achievement ? oriented

leadership method of motivation is practical in my agency. Senior management

attempts and most of the time succeed, to use this theory for its success. The

achievement values are as follows: (1) Seek to achieve success through one?s

own efforts and not have their success attributed to other factors. 8 (2) Work

on projects ? which are challenging, but not attainable. (3) Receive

identifiable and recurring feedback about one?s work and avoid situations

where the level of achievement is in question. Individual performance is one?s

ability to complete a task along with motivation to do the task. If criminal

justice managers understand these issues, involving the employee by explaining

the expectations, understanding one?s ability, create the motivation, the end

result will be maximum performance from the employee. Another major factor in

the success of the criminal justice system is effective leadership. There are

several models mentioned in the text. Particularly in the ?path-goal

theory,? there are the following: (1) the directive leadership behavior, (2)

supportive leadership behavior, (3) the achievement-oriented behavior, and (4)

the participate leaderships behavior. All great leaders all, but most have less

and some have only one. As demonstrated in my interview of a criminal justice

manager, my organization has mostly achievement-oriented leaders. Mostly became

of the external factors of our contract with the Department of Energy. Effective

leaders and command staff-level management must possess at least five leadership

traits: (1) possess traits indicative of a proactive approach to leadership; (2)

be aware of the importance of building professional relationships with

employees; (3) balance the needs of employees with concern for production; 9 (4)

Incorporate a sense of ?vision? within the organization and serve as a

transformer of culture when necessary; and (5) have an array of contingent

strategies. All of management and leaders within the organization must utilize

all their skills to ensure agency goals and objectives are met, especially in

the criminal justice system. The organization culture is very complex in nature

within the criminal justice system. The law enforcement, judicial and

correctional systems, even though essentially in the same business, are

different. Each level of the justice system belongs to it?s own subculture.

Each also, has subcultures within it. They act on individual socialization

within themselves. A great example would be life within a prison institution.

The warden, of course, is in charge of the institution but when off, the ranking

correctional officer is in charge when he/she is with the inmates. The

individual group leader of the inmates (according to the ?pecking order?) is

in charge when the correctional officer is not around. The examples given are of

formal and informal socialization. Before taking this course and thoroughly

reading the text, I was only exposed to law enforcement organizations. Most of

the professors were either lawyers or law professionals. It was enlightening to

read the text and to hear a different perspective from a corrections

professional.