Strategic Planning in the Criminal Justice System A Guide to Understanding the Process Challenges in the criminal justice system are seldom simple and rarely isolated to one agency or program, but rather require a coordinated and thorough approach. Comprehensive planning enables governors and their administrations to deploy strategies that are responsive, effective and cost efficient. Limited resources require that investments be made in programs with proven outcomes and that address the needs of greatest priority. A comprehensive strategic planning process enables an agency, community or state to clearly identify those challenges of greatest urgency and allocate available federal, state and local resources across programs, targeted populations and/or to geographic areas so that the highest needs are met. Done effectively, strategic planning helps to bring the problems into focus, define reasonable and achievable goals, decide how to deploy available resources responsibly and evaluate success toward desired outcomes. Used together with a collaborative communications strategy, comprehensive planning assists in identifying and addressing potential barriers to success and can chart progress toward stated goals. A continuous analytic process, strategic planning is used to create a focus for activities and resources to achieve specific results and to develop shared responsibility for achieving those results.
The Governor’s role in leading effective planning Leadership from the governor’s office is essential for setting an expectation of cross-system collaboration, including setting a vision for criminal justice in the state. The governor plays a pivotal role in directing state agencies to work together and providing a structure for effective collaboration (i.e., appointing and empowering a public safety sub cabinet). In this way, the governor not only provides a mandate for change, but also a purpose and structure for convening state and local government partners and the broader statewide stakeholder community. A governor’s bully pulpit can draw attention to key issues, direct executive actions and encourage legislative actions.
The State Administering Agency’s role in strategic planning State administering agencies (SAAs) are the state’s designated criminal justice planning agencies, administering more than $3 billion in federal grants each year, including the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) program. Strategic planning is an important tool SAAs use to ensure resources address each state’s most pressing challenges, that desired outcomes are achieved and that the programs supported are evidence informed and data-driven. As the designated criminal justice planning and policy development agency, the SAA is given the ability to access a wide perspective of local and state justice initiatives, provide support to promising initiatives and coordinate similar efforts across the state. The SAA may also identify gaps across disciplines and provide leadership, when necessary, to address those gaps. Originally passed in the 1968 Omnibus Crime Control & Safe Streets Act, Byrne JAG was intended to “(1) encourage States and units of general local government to prepare and adopt comprehensive plans based upon their evaluation of State and local problems of law enforcement; (2) authorize grants to States and units of local government in order to improve and strengthen law enforcement; and (3) encourage research and development directed toward the improvement of law enforcement and the development of new methods for the prevention and reduction of crime and the detection and apprehension of criminals” (emphasis added). Although the original requirement for comprehensive strategic planning was inadvertently dropped when the program was reauthorized in 2005, it was renewed in the Justice for All Reauthorization Act of 2016 (JFARA) with specific guidance to states on the stakeholders and process to engage. 1
Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets, https://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/OSEC/library/legislative_histories/1615.pdf
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