Describe what the agency did, or failed to do, to ensure quality control and assurance.

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read Chapters 4 and 5 in the textbook.

The ideas of quality assurance and control can often appear quite clear and salient with respect to corporations and private businesses. However, rarely does one hear direct conversation about these concepts concerning the functions of law enforcement and corrections. It almost seems like a misnomer to hear of “quality assurance and control” when discussing aspects of a law enforcement or correctional organization. Despite the fact that it might appear on the surface as though issues of quality assurance and control are absent from law enforcement and corrections, the opposite is actually true.

Law enforcement and correctional agencies spend a great deal of time and money devising innovative plans to offer a better product to the general public. Programs such as community policing and problem-oriented policing are but two mechanisms through which law enforcement leaders have attempted to increase quality in their organizations. Within correctional organizations, programs aimed at mental health treatment, work programs, and educational offerings have been created in an effort to provide a better quality product.

Based on your required readings, examine how the concepts of quality assurance and control are addressed in a law enforcement or correctional organization of your choice. In your post, identify your chosen organization. Explain the issues pertaining to budgetary considerations and how those affect communication, ethics, and coordination. Analyze how the respective organization’s leaders ensured that their agency provided a quality product to the general public. In addition, provide an example of how a law enforcement agency or correctional organization failed to provide a quality product. Describe what the agency did, or failed to do, to ensure quality control and assurance.

Your initial post should be at least 400 words in length.

References: Text

Doss, D. A., Guo, C., & Lee, J. Y. (2012). The business of criminal justice: A guide for theory and practice. Retrieved from https://www.vitalsource.com/

Chapter 4: Basic Concepts of Quality Management

Chapter 5: Basic Concepts of Operations Management

Articles

Naughton, M. (2005). Evidence-based policy and the government of the criminal justice system – Only if the evidence fits! Critical Social Policy, 25(1), 47-69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0261018305048967

The full-text version of this article is available through the Sage database in the Ashford University Library. This article addresses issues of quality control and assurance from a more theoretical Foucauldian perspective. The author maintains that the insistence of governmental authority to provide to the public a method of crime control reform has fallen short of its intended aims and is instead a form of inadequate paternalism.

Ridgeway, G., & MacDonald, J. M. (2014). A method for internal benchmarking of criminal justice system performance. Crime & Delinquency, 60(1), 145-162. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0011128713514802

The full-text version of this article is available through the Sage database in the Ashford University Library. This article provides additional information on the myriad uses of benchmarking as a valued practice within the field of criminal justice as organizations strive to offer enhanced quality of services. This article will assist you in the development of the second discussion post this week.

Recommended Resources

Websites

MSCJ Professional Sources (Links to an external site.). (http://ashford-mscj.weebly.com/)

This resource site will provide