People Processing Agencies

People processing agencies are organized for purpose of efficiently sorting people into categories. These categories are the basis for decisions on how to handle individuals in a way that will help society. These agencies exist mainly to change the status of certain people through some type of deliberate effort. The transition from “citizen” to “convict” is typical of such a process. Because this change in status injures the person’s social and maternal welfare, many safeguards must be used to assure that this power is not misused.

The Role of Bureaucracy

All criminal justice agencies are bureaucratic organizations. Bureaucracy allows a relatively small number of practitioners to handle a rather large number of offenders with minimum expense. It also allows agencies to assure that each practitioner will handle cases in the same way. Bureaucracies are defined by the following traits: 1) hierarchical organization; 2) specialized divisions of labor; 3) rules and procedures guide decision making; 4) employees see their jobs as life-long careers; and 5) record keeping is of paramount importance. Hierarchical organization provides practitioners with a clear chain of command or organization of job roles into different levels of power that forms a coherent system. Commands flow down from the top and information flows upward. Bureaucrats make decisions based on agency rules and/or various laws. In the justice process, however, much is left to the discretion of the practitioner. Discretion in the use of professional judgement to decide which rule applies to a case. This hurts the efficiency of agency activities and leaves practitioners open to charges of bias but is an essential part of the justice process because people-processing consists of efforts to apply general rules to unique situations. Discretion can sometimes humanize the process by taking the uniqueness of individuals and situations into account, however. Because bureaucrats view their jobs as careers and want to be promoted their concern is often focused upon how superiors will react to their decisions. The effects of their decisions on the client or society may thus be neglected. Personal ambition and agency goals may therefore be given more attention than those of the overall process. Reliance on rules and records means that one practitioner can easily be substituted for another. Good recordkeeping also provides a consistent record to justify each decision and is needed to keep track of changes in each offender’s legal status. The records basically indicate why and how the rules were applied to a particular case. Bureaucracies evaluate their employees on the basis of their record-keeping. Bureaucrats are therefore more likely to be familiar with the files and statuses of their clients than with the client as a unique individual. It is for this reason that bureaucracies are often seen as cold and impersonal.

People Changing Agencies

The central goal of people-changing agencies is to alter the nature of people’s behavior. Educational and mental health agencies are excellent examples of people-changing agencies. Education, counseling and punishment are the principal methods by which we attempt to change offenders into law-abiding citizens. Most counseling and educational services for offenders are provided by agencies outside of the justice process. Justice agencies provide a collection point for individuals whose statuses have been legally altered. Practitioners must make decisions as to what sorts of changes in status are needed for each offender.

Status changes are sometimes undesirable because they can have negative effects on a person’s future behavior. The practice of allowing minor first offenders to avoid having their status lowered by the justice process is known as diversion. The decision to divert an offender to a non-criminal justice agency may be left to practitioner judgment but may sometimes be a matter of agency policy or legal mandate.

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