NCJ Number
96903
Date Published
1979
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This report emphasizes the interdependence of criminal justice agencies and the need for a management process that recognizes these relationships; it analyzes adult felony processing in two Michigan counties.
Abstract
In each county, police and corrections together accounted for more than 60 percent of total expenditures and manpower. Each county had unique characteristics that affected the division of effort of agencies within the county. For example, arrest rates, proportion of district court cases that were bound over to circuit court, and number of defendants sentenced to jail were all variables that distinguished the two counties. Activity data from annual reports published by criminal justice agencies generally showed good internal consistency. Problems arose when a relationship required data to be drawn from two different agencies. Large discrepancies were found, for instance, when the numbers of offenders sentenced were computed for a percentage of all cases disposed. Manually collected research data yielded much higher sentencing rates for each of the counties than the data from court and correctional records indicated. Findings indicated the impossibility of tracking the flow of defendants from their point of arrest through disposition using only data from regularly published reports in Michigan. Missing links prevented the division of offenses and arrests into misdemeanors and felonies, the comparison of arrests to warrants requested and warrants issued, and similar interagency shifts in caseload. Seven tables, three figures, and two illustrations are included.