This assignment due April 14 2014 @ 6pm PST For CJ A498

Back sTory

When state budgets get tight, people’s attitudes on the cost of incarceration versus their attitude on alternatives to incarceration tend to change. This assignment discusses the choices available to citizens when the priorities on alternatives to incarceration conflict with each other.

Tasks:

Write a 2- to 3-page report, including the following:

Examine people’s attitude toward the cost of incarceration versus their attitude toward alternatives to incarceration, especially when budgets shrink. How does the public’s attitude toward incarceration and its alternatives compare to the “Get Tough on Crime” and the “Three Strikes” laws?

Do you place more value upon incapacitation or upon rehabilitation and correction? In the end, which works better, or do they work best together in some combination or hierarchy? Support your responses with evidence from the readings for the course or other credible sources.

Discuss one article from real life (located using the readings from the textbook, Argosy University online library resources, and any other credible outside sources) demonstrating how some communities have resolved the conflict in corrections between incapacitation and correction.

Consider the parks versus prison conundrum. Do we spend more on parks so as to nurture better society or more for prisons to remove and restrain the evildoers? Are people born criminals or can their environment—more parks, more employment, or educational opportunities—deter or reduce crime and criminality?

Should communities ask for flexibility on laws that make crime punishable? Support your responses with evidence from the readings for the course or other credible sources.

Should communities outsource prison operations or do they agree to increase taxes to maintain the incarceration rates? Support your responses with evidence from the readings for the course or other credible sources.

Analyze and explain whether community leaders (the politicians, criminal justice professionals, community members, and businesses) need to think of other solutions instead of punishment as an option for offenders.

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Assignment 2 for CJ A235 Class also due April 14

This paper due April 14, 6pm PST

BackStory

Since the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, there has been a real push in local law enforcement agencies—especially large ones—to incorporate intelligence-led policing techniques.

A part of that strategy has been the creation of fusion centers in all fifty states intended to facilitate the sharing of police intelligence information between federal, state, and local agencies. Consider the Lambert (2010) article, “Intelligence-Led Policing in a Fusion Center” and the “US Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report on Fusion Centers” in the Webliography.

The creation of fusion centers and their operations have not been without controversy. Many civil libertarians have expressed concern that instead of focusing only on real threats, fusion centers encourage the government’s suspicion toward law-abiding citizens and groups that are suspected of potential hostility toward government.

Tasks:

Write a 2- to 3-page paper. In the paper:

Take a definitive stand, with explanations, for or against the use of fusion centers as a local law enforcement tool.

Discuss how these centers may be abused to violate citizen rights.

Explain the difference between the cooperation that occurs through fusion centers and that through other kinds of multiagency activities, such as task forces and joint investigations.

Identify and discuss the possible steps or policies to minimize concerns that some have raised about potential abuses.

Feel free to do additional research on the topic of fusion centers, beyond the reading that has been assigned to further improve your paper