Prioritizing Budget Allocations for Essential Services
The cost worksheet prioritizes spending on essential needs such as staffing, medical healthcare, food and supplies, and programs and services. It also includes funding for infrastructure and maintenance and green initiatives to reduce overhead costs.
The cost worksheet for the budget proposal will include the following expenses (Table 1).
Table 1 – Budget Costs
Addressing Operational Challenges Through Strategic Spending
The proposed budget for the Correctional Institutions is grounded in thoroughly evaluating the institution’s requirements. There is a significant gap between the budgeted amount and the actual cost of delivering these services, even though the former appears straightforward. The proposal suggests allocating funds to better the living conditions in correctional facilities. More specifically, I propose providing $2.5 million to the Staffing department to hire more suitable people to offer medical care, food, and other services. In addition, I suggest allocating $2 million for green initiatives, which will reduce energy costs and make inmates feel safer, and $1 million for medical services to ensure proper care is provided.
Moreover, I propose $750,000 for food and supplies to ensure adequate meals and supplies, $1.5 million for programs and services to ensure rehabilitation programs are provided, $1 million for infrastructure and maintenance to ensure the facilities are up-to-date, and $1 million for inmates to feel safe within the facilities. Ultimately, these areas are essential for the smooth operation of a prison and will contribute to improving the conditions in which inmates are housed (Mikesell, 2017). As a result, this budget includes sufficient funds to enhance correctional facility conditions.
To that end, I am confident in my proposed budget’s ability to significantly enhance correctional facilities’ living conditions. More supervision and higher levels of inmate safety may be possible due to the additional funds provided for personnel expenditures. To ensure offenders have access to essential educational and vocational programs, it may be helpful to enhance funding for medical care and activities (Mikesell, 2017).
In addition, the additional income for food and supplies may guarantee that prisoners get the necessary nourishment. Lastly, infrastructure and maintenance charges help keep buildings in good condition and up to standards. All of these will enhance the quality of life in correctional facilities and contribute to inmates’ sense of safety and security.
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Long-Term Budget Management
I will establish a system of checks and balances to monitor expenditures to guarantee precise and comprehensive budget reporting. The budget, the expenditures, and the results will be monitored regularly. In addition, I will ensure that everyone with any say in the budget’s management has received the proper education and is aware of their roles. Moreover, I will establish limits by creating separate bank accounts for every line item in the budget, allowing me to keep close tabs on how the money is being spent all year long. Finally, I will set up an audit system to examine past spending patterns to guarantee that money is being put to good use.
My research and proposal relied on civilian-created budgets because they are the norm for public sector agencies that fund civilian and security operations in correctional facilities. Financial plans for government services such as law enforcement and incarceration were included (van Zijl-Smit & Dünkel, 2021). The statistics come from several cases, including the DOC’s annual report and other internal reports detailing the costs of running each prison (Maruschak & Minton, 2020; Kang-Brown et al., 2021). The DOC report is a reference point against which the researcher’s data collection efforts can be evaluated to guarantee accurate budget preparation. Past data was further reviewed to guide decisions about how and when to adjust funding.
As I have already stated, centralized budgeting presents a potential challenge in ensuring that all areas of need are adequately funded. Consequently, this can cause reductions in funding for programs that are crucial to ensuring the public’s health and safety (van Zijl-Smit & Dünkel, 2021). Centralized budgeting may make it difficult to respond to unexpected changes or new requirements as they arise within an organization. Due to a lack of discretion, it may be difficult for individual facilities to make necessary budget adjustments, resulting in waste.
From my observations, correctional facilities increasingly prioritize providing adequate resources for security operations and civilian activities. There is an increase in spending on infrastructure maintenance items like building repairs and upgrades and personnel-related things like hiring new employees and providing medical care. Furthermore, there is a growing movement toward spending money on environmentally friendly projects because of the potential for long-term cost savings. The goal is to provide convicts with the appropriate programs and assistance to ease their transition into society once they have served their sentence. Overall, these trends point to a growing emphasis on citizen demands by governments when allocating resources.
Ultimately, my plan has been designed to address the issues the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) raised. The report by the NIJ states that prison healthcare and rehabilitation programs are underfunded (Ames, 2019; Rocque, 2021). For this reason, my idea can be helpful. Inmates will have better access to medical care if staff members are trained in these programs. Those incarcerated who hope to continue their education after serving their time will benefit from the increased availability of educational opportunities made possible by the additional funds (Ames, 2019). The proposed budget will help provide funding for other staff members and the maintenance costs associated with running a facility service-based, in addition to this recommendation from NIJ’s report.
References
Ames, B. (2019). NIJ-funded research examines what works for successful reentry. National Institute of Justice, 281. Web.
Kang-Brown, J., Montagnet, C., & Heiss, J. (2021). People in jail and prison in spring 2021. New York: Vera Institute of Justice. Web.
Maruschak, L. M., & Minton, T. D. (2020). Correctional populations in the United States, 2017–2018. NCJ, 252157, 1-17. Web.
Mikesell, J. (2017). Ebook: Fiscal administration. Cengage.
Rocque, M. (2021). But what Does It Mean: Defining, Measuring, and Analyzing Desistance from Crime in Criminal Justice. US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice. Web.
van Zijl-Smit, D., & Dünkel, F. (Eds.). (2021). Imprisonment today and tomorrow: International perspectives on prisoners’ rights and prison conditions. BRILL.