Managing Organizational Processes in a Criminal Justice Organization

The court system of a medium-sized city has tasked you, a consultant hired to address organizational issues, with assembling a team to develop an improvement plan. The goal of this plan is to improve the channels of communication with the political body, department heads, personnel, judges, other police and federal agencies, and the community. A key issue identified by the presiding judge is a backlog of criminal cases.

The court system has been criticized for its poor communication. Your team is tasked with defining the problem areas from your own point of view. It is important for the political body to support the court system in its mission to dispense justice in a fair and impartial manner.

The presiding judge is looking for a strategy to improve both lines of communication and decision making. Improved communication is needed so better decisions can be made. Some of the ideas identified by the presiding judge include enhancement of communication between the prosecutors office, court administration, defense attorneys, and other court systems. The team may identify other ideas as it explores these issues.

Collaborate with your team members to complete the following:

Prepare a plan of action on how to approach this challenge. Consider the following elements in your plan of action presentation:

• *Identify the issues related to power and political behavior in criminal justice agencies.
• *Contrast the types and channels of communication to enhance information sharing in criminal justice organizations.
• *Evaluate elements of the decision-making process in criminal justice agencies.
• *Brainstorm your plan of action in the Collaborative Team Discussion Group. Each team member is required to include their own ideas for each of the above elements and comment on the ideas of others. Collaborative conclusions need to be created in the Collaborative Team Discussion Group.

Create a 3 to 4 slide PowerPoint presentation with detailed speaker notes based on your plan of action. Include pictures or charts to illustrate your points. Assume you will be presenting your recommendations for improvement to the presiding judge, the mayor, and other appropriate management personnel.

Research all issues using media accounts of any court systems, websites, personal interviews, Internet sources, court system official statements, and other resources deemed important by your team.