Organizing the non-system

This book examines the organization and structure of criminal justice services within the American federal system. Its basic proposition is that greater criminal justice unification is generally desirable if it responds to the differential characteristics of system components and to decentralization needs. State leadership and authority is seen as the focal point for unification efforts, and unification is conceived as a mix of hierarchical standard-setting, regulatory, monitoring, coordinative, and fiscal incentive measures, tailored to the special character and mission of each major criminal justice component and applicable at regional and metropolitan as well as state levels. Commencing with a chapter descriptive of the criminal justice setting (apparatus, finances, workload, service targets, structural patterns) the text moves on to an exploration of key issues and problematic characteristics inherent in either the criminal justice apparatus or the American governmental framework which bear on structural schema. The two introductory chapters are followed by units on each criminal justice component (police, courts, prosecution defense, and corrections) which explore and evaluate current organizational characteristics, reform proposals, and directions of change, each ending with speculations on desired or future courses of development. A penultimate chapter discusses total system integration, with focus on (1) the dominant integrative technique for this period ('comprehensive planning' as molded by grant-in-aid policy under federal crime control legislation) and (2) exploration of possibilities for structural or umbrella department integration at both state and local levels. A final chapter serves as a recap of precept and progress with respect to criminal justice 'unification' (in each individual component and the system-at-large) and a prognosis for the future.