Long-Range Planning in the Criminal Justice System : What State Planning Agencies Can Do.

The state criminal justice planning agencies required by the Crime Control Act of 1968 must, to achieve their objectives, overcome the usual sources of plan failure--resistance of the agencies involved to outside control; separation of planning from budgeting; planning in a vacuum apart from decisionmakers who accept or reject; lack of flexibility (many information systems are obsolete before they go online); failure to consider all alternatives; and lack of evaluation data. Problems to be faced specifically: resource shortage with demand outstripping capacity; obscure functions and historically based hang-ups; poor administration; and division of functions among agencies, resulting in fragmentation and often in conflicting efforts. Coordinated planning is essential to prevent overlapping and oversight, to use resources efficiently, to reduce anguish, and to make research widely useful. Analysis is needed at every step, requiring economists, operations researchers, psychologists, engineers, and information scientists. (Presented to the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission staff, April 1970.) 8 pp. Ref.