Question
Prepare to participate in a debate on the following topic: Should budget authority be granted across multiple levels in a criminal justice organization or centralized by a separate city or government unit?
Part I
Create an outline supporting your position. You should include a minimum of 5 points and each point should be fully supported with sub points.
Part II
Create an outline countering your original position. You should have a minimum of 5 points and each point should be fully supported with sub points.
Sample paper
Debate: Centralized Budget
Part I
Introduction
Title: Debate about centralized authority in the criminal justice field.
Background information: the criminal justice field is made up federal, state as well as local public entities that are mandated to fight crime. The agencies identify and arrest suspects, prosecute them and convict the offenders. Those convicted are placed in correction facilities. These agencies receive funds from the federal government in order to carry out their activities smoothly. The major components of the system are law enforcement, courts and corrections. The debate discusses whether budget authority should be granted to criminal justice agencies or centralized by a separate city or government.
Thesis statement: budget authority should be granted to the criminal justice agencies because. They have different functions, they need different resources, it ensures efficiency, accountability is achieved and cases do not take long to be ruled.
Body
Paragraphs
- The multiple agencies of the criminal justice field have different functions
- The police department, courts and correction facilities have distinct responsibilities.
- The three institutions are strong entities on their own
- The amount of resources//funds needed are different
- The different functions of these three levels needs require different amount of funds allocated to them
- The resources are also needed at different times.
- There is efficiency
- When the each sector is in charge of its budget, time is saved.
- There is better performance at each level.
- Accountability is achieved
- When each sector has control of its budget, it achieves the best from the available resources.
- Resources are not wasted.
- There is no inconvenience of waiting for resources to be processed.
- Cases are solved in a short time
- There is pressure to produce results in a given time frame under a certain budget
- There is need for every sector to maintain high performance in order not to fail the others.
Conclusion
- Summary of the main points: each level of the criminal justice organization should be granted its budget authority because they have different functions, they need different resources, it ensures efficiency, there is a high level of accountability and cases are solved in a short time
- As criminal activities continue increasing, the levels of criminal justice system should be empowered to control their budget in order to reduce crime rates.
Part II
Introduction
Title: Debate about centralized authority in the criminal justice field.
Background information: the criminal justice field is made up federal, state as well as local public entities that are mandated to fight crime. The agencies identify and arrest suspects, prosecute them and convict the offenders. Those convicted are placed in correction facilities. These agencies receive funds from the federal government in order to carry out their activities smoothly. The major components of the system are law enforcement, courts and corrections. The debate discusses whether budget authority should be granted to criminal justice agencies or centralized by a separate city or government.
Thesis statement: budget authority for in the criminal justice field should be centralized by a separate city or government unit in order to cover the whole system, improve the services of the system, to enhance performance of the whole system, to reduce unnecessary costs, and bring cohesion to all the parts of the system.
Body
Paragraphs
- To cover the whole system
- The performance of any one sector affects all the others. This means it is better managed as one.
- Variation in the way one entity handles its resources can cause confusion.
- Improve on the services.
- This can reduce delays caused a by not having the resources on time .
- A smooth and fast process ensures there is no corruption and the public has confidence in the system.
- Enhance better performance
- The efficiency of the system can be restored if the budget authority is granted to an independent body
- The officers in the three levels have no personal interest in the resources since it is not their responsibility. This means chances of misappropriating funds are low.
- Reduce unnecessary costs
- There are no additional costs incurred as a result of inconveniences at the different levels.
- Less is incurred in hiring professionals to prepare budgets and financial reports.
- Ensure cohesion in all the parts of the system.
- The individual levels of the system are strong entities. centralizing their budget authority will bring them together.
- The three levels can work together for a common goal: to counter crime.
Conclusion
- Summary of the main points: when the budget authority for all the levels of the criminal justice system are centralized by a separate city or a government unit, the system is taken care of as a whole, services are improved, the performance of each level is enhanced, unnecessary costs are cut and there is cohesion in the whole system.
- The rise in the rates of crime necessitates that funds allocated to the system are utilized for a common goal of fighting crime..
