Criminal Justice Policy and Planning: Planned Change - Softcover

Even before the Great Recession, agency administrators were told to "do more with less" and be more accountable, efficient, and effective. While change in itself is not bad, if unplanned, policies, programs, and projects will likely fail and foment negative consequences in the workplace and CJ system. This textbook provides an essential step-by-step, rational, and sequential approach to planning, implementing, and assessing change in criminal justice. There is no other such guidebook on the market. Welsh and Harris’ straightforward explanation of the overall approach to planned change, supplemented by many real-world case studies and problems, combine to provide excellent faculty and student resources.

-Ken Peak, Professor Emeritus, University of Nevada, Reno

Failed crime-control strategies exact a high cost―jeopardizing public safety and consigning offenders to a life in crime, if not behind bars. Welsh and Harris take on the daunting challenge of the implementation of policies and programs that work, providing an invaluable guide to undertaking planned change. Their seven-stage model is carefully crafted and clearly explained. Essential reading for all, Criminal Justice Policy and Planning is ideal for classroom use and for helping students to envision how they might one day create a system that is, at once, more fair and more effective.

-Francis T. Cullen, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus, University of Cincinnati

Unlike other textbooks on the subject, Criminal Justice Policy and Planning: Planned Change, Fifth Edition, presents a comprehensive and structured account of the process of administering planned change in the criminal justice system. Welsh and Harris detail a simple yet sophisticated seven-stage model, which offers students and practitioners a full account of program and policy development from beginning to end. The authors thoughtfully discuss the steps: analyzing a problem; setting goals and objectives; designing the program or policy; action planning; implementing and monitoring; evaluating outcomes; and reassessing and reviewing. Within these steps, students focus on performing essential procedures, such as conducting a systems analysis, specifying an impact model, identifying target populations, making cost projections, collecting monitoring data, and performing evaluations. In reviewing these steps and procedures, students can develop a full appreciation for the challenges inherent in the process and understand the tools that they require to meet those challenges.

To provide for a greater understanding of the material, the text uses a wide array of real-life case studies and examples of programs and policies. Examples include policies such as Restorative Justice, Justice Reinvestment, Stop-and-Frisk, and the Brady Act, and programs such as drug courts, community-based violence prevention, and halfway houses. By examining the successes and failures of various innovations, the authors demonstrate both the ability of rational planning to make successful improvements and the tendency of unplanned change to result in undesirable outcomes. The result is a powerful argument for the use of logic, deliberation, and collaboration in criminal justice innovations.