NCJ Number
131939
Date Published
Unknown
Length
87 pages
Annotation
This model provides Congress and Federal agencies estimates of the potential effect of budgetary changes on the criminal justice system; for example, the model can estimate the effect of a major budget increase for the Drug Enforcement Administration on the workload of other organizational components of the Federal criminal justice system.
Abstract
The model is a set of mathematical equations that define the basic relationships between resources (budgets and/or staff years) and workload (defendants processed) at each stage of the Federal criminal justice system. These equations and the workload estimates they produce are based on the historic relationship between resources and workload for each agency in the model. The model's estimates assume these relationships will not change significantly in the near future. To use the model, one specifies the resources for each agency included separately in the model. The model then estimates the total number of persons (workload) who will move through the investigation, prosecution, and adjudication stages of the criminal justice system during the fiscal year and the number who will enter the correction stage. If an agency's resources remain the same as the previous fiscal year, the model estimates that the workload the agency produces will remain the same. The model also shows whether there is likely to be an increase in pending end-of-year workload at the prosecution and/or adjudication stages. Application of the model to the President's fiscal year 1992 budget request shows that courts would be overloaded. Detailed information on the modeling methodology and applications is appended. 38 tables and 5 figures