Now that you’ve completed your budget proposal, it’s important that you reflect on your research and practice. Reflection allows you to acknowledge your achievement and take note of opportunities for improvement in the future.
Write
a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper reflecting on the budget proposal you created in Week 4, as well as on your research findings in this course. Address the following:
- What are the key components of your budget proposal?
- Could your proposal, as is, be implemented in the real world? Explain. If not, what steps would need to be taken to implement?
- How would your identified “guardrails” for reporting ensure both accuracy and completeness in reporting? Would these same guardrails assist you with accountability to your budget? Explain.
- How could your budget affect funding and public perception?
- What inconsistencies or gaps do you anticipate if your budget were implemented? What steps could you take to overcome these issues?
- How would you summarize your budget to convince the city council of its merit?
Cite
a minimum of 2 peer-reviewed sources.
Format
your paper according to APA guidelines.
Submit
your assignment.
Tinesha Ardner Budget Proposal Week 4 02/07/2023 University of Phoenix CJA416 James Dixon The budget proposal plays an important role in the success of any organization and especially in the case of criminal justice activities where the budget outlays are having a significant role to manage criminal justice-related activities. We have performed a detailed analysis of the budget for the department of justice for FY 20, FY 21, and FY 22 and have also analysed the ways to protect the budget against inaccurate reporting. Further, in the report guardrails have also been defined for effective budgeting systems in the USA. A budget proposal for the agency selected and a cost sheet to be included in the budget: In this case, the selected department of agency is the US department of justice which is one of the largest departments in the USA and is responsible for local security and administration-related activities. The USA is having the largest correctional system with approximately 2.3 million inmates and the above number is not included 80,000 youths being held in juvenile detention facilities. We have prepared the budget proposal for the US Department of Justice for FY 20, FY 21 enacted, and FY 22 requests which are as below: In this case, the total budget enacted for federal activities was $29,754 million for FY 20 which has been increased to $30,767 million and the revised budget for FY 22 has requested $31,325 million. The budget has been increased by 2% in FY 22 which shows that police-related activities need to be strengthened and more man force is required to be recruited. The state and local grants are expected to increase by 44% in the year 2022 which depicts that the state and local bodies are to be strengthened to improve the system at the local level so that crime-related activities can be minimized or completely stopped. Further, the total discretionary BU with fee has also been revised from $32,387 million to $35,0304 million and the government body is planning to strengthen its security more stringent and efficiently at the local level as well as national level. Proposal recommendation and way to protect the budget against the effects of inaccurate or incomplete reporting Despite of fundamental part of the nation, the United States criminal justice system is facing several issues. In current, the department is facing majorly three largest issues i.e., public perception, police recruitment and retention, and lack of resource parity between public defenders and prosecutions. Police recruitment and retention are one of the largest problems in the USA and as per the report published in the year 2021, the resignation rate has increased dramatically in the year 2021 as compared to 2016 due to a lack of facilities and resources and the recruitment rate is very low. The second large issue in the criminal justice system is the lack of parity in resources available to public defenders and prosecutions. The best example is statistics for the state of California showing that the prosecution received 82% higher funding as compared to the defender in the year 2018 and due to such action, the public defenders worked in interdisciplinary teams to serve needs and circumstances. The third largest problem is waning public trust and it has resulted in the weakening of the justice system in the USA (U.S. Department of Justice 2022). To resolve such issues enough funds should be allocated for development and education so that proper training can be provided to personnel and other educational facilities can also be provided for their learning and professional development to handle high-profile instances because in recent years the high-profile instances have increased significantly. The police department should also be provided adequate resources such as manpower, weapons, and other instruments so that the system can be adequately strengthened. The cost of agency resources is one of the crucial components for the development of the budget so the adequate number of personnel, their salaries, and other perks costs should be adequately incorporated into the budget. It will help to motivate the personnel to join the force and the resignation rate will also be reduced in a significant manner. The personnel would also be able to provide the best outcomes to the nation and the justice system efficiency can be improved to a significant extent. Performance of budget proposal against issues identified In this case, the performance of the budget is poor against the issues identified in the justice system of the USA. In this case, there is a lack of resources in the police department and there is no significant increase in the allocated amount of budget as there is only a 2% increase in the law enforcement component. However, the government has sanctioned an increase in budget by 44% on account of admin, technology, and others in the year 2022 as compared to the budget sanctioned in FY 21 and it indicates that the government is trying to strengthen its tech-based platform and activities so the system can be improved and stringent in a significant manner. Guardrails to be set up and examples related to police-created The budget for the FBI can be set up as a guardrail and the same can also be implemented in the justice system so that the strengthening of the justice system can be improved. For example, the FBI has allocated $7890189 million on account of expenditure towards personnel services in FY 23 whereas the actual expenditures in FY 22 were $5782562 million and it indicates that the FBI is trying to motivate their employees so that they can serve the nation more conveniently and the same should also be implemented in police-related activities. Further, the budgeting issues are different at different levels so the assumptions should be prepared closer to real operating conditions. Further, there should be original budget authorization and other aspects should be taken care of and accordingly should be implemented in the police department. Potential issues with the use of centralized budgeting The department of justice should be decentralized at various levels because there are several issues with centralized budgeting. Centralized budgeting can result in various potential issues such as delays of work and approvals because there is a lot of approval metrics and authorization level for budget utilization approval and it can result in delayed execution of work (Neal Davis Law Firm 2022). Further, it is difficult to implement uniform criteria at the local level because each region is having different modalities and aspects and accordingly it is recommended to use decentralized budgeting for faster execution of work and a strong justification system. References Neal Davis Law Firm (2022). Neal Davis Scholarship Winner: Largest Challenges to the Criminal Justice System. Retrieved from https://www.nealdavislaw.com/blog/firm-news/2022-scholarship-winner-criminal-justice-challenges Criminal Justice Expenditures: Police, Corrections, and Courts (2022). Retrieved from https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/criminal-justice-police-corrections-courts-expenditures U.S. Department of Justice (2022). U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FY 2022 BUDGET SUMMARY. Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/jmd/page/file/1398931/download#:~:text=Law%20Enforcement%20and%20Judicial%20Security,program%20increases%20totaling%20%24145.6%20million.