Assignment 3: Technology Influences- NO PLAGIARISM

Internal and External Stakeholders

Student’s Name

University Affiliation

Internal and External Stakeholders

1. Identify the Internal and External Stakeholders.

Internal stakeholders in this issue are individuals within the criminal justice system who directly contribute to this issue (Baugh, 2015). They include police officers, correctional officers, probation officers, parole officer, judges as well as inmates. The external stakeholders include the government and society in general. They are the individuals who do not make up the criminal justice system but in one way or another affect it (Baugh, 2015).

2. Discuss how internal or external stakeholders have influenced the situation in a positive or negative way?

The influence of the external stakeholders on this issue is mostly negative. The government, on one hand, has negatively influenced this issue by allowing it to go on for so long and even to grow in two main ways. The first way is through lack of proper policy formulation and implementation. The government is in charge of running the prisons and the overall criminal justice system. They have failed in terms of not having good enough policies in place that can first and foremost reduce the level of delinquency in our society and consequently the number of offenders and also policies to help solve the issue of overcrowding given the fact that this is an issue that has persisted on for such a long time.

Government efforts have obviously not been successful in bringing the number of offenders down and also reducing the level of overcrowding and this is a major reason why this problem has really persisted on (Dandurand & Griffiths, 2006). The government has also failed in terms of funding since they have not been able to adequately fund the prisons to meet the needs of the big population of inmates or build more prison facilities to accommodate the growing numbers.

The society, on the other hand, has influenced this issue negatively in the simple sense that offenders come from the society. The level of moral degradation in the society is the source of this negative influence alongside the lack of proper values, systems and role models among other social issues. This has seen more and more individuals get into crime and as a result, there are large numbers of offenders being arrested who end up overcrowding the prisons.

The influence of the internal stakeholders is both negative and positive. Some internal stakeholders such as parole officers and probation officers have contributed positively. This is because there are a lot of efforts from the parole and probation department to give alternative sentences for prisoners who have shown positive changes by allowing them to serve in parole in probation and consequently easing the population in the prisons (Dandurand & Griffiths, 2006). Courts, however, have had a negative influence because they sometimes give unreasonably long sentences.

Correction officers in the prisons have further had a negative influence in the sense that they have failed to effectively impart positive behaviour change among inmates whether it’s their fault or the fault of the system and therefore individuals persist being prisons for long. Most inmates in the same sense go to prison and start engaging in bad activities which keep them in prison longer by denying them a chance to parole or probation. Police officers finally influence this problem negatively by engaging in unfair arrest acts for example against the minority and hence filling up prisons with individuals who should not be there in the first place.

3. How will you consider stakeholders in your solution to the problem?

From the above discussion, this problem is obviously not the doing of only one party. Each of the stakeholders mentioned above influences this issue in one way or another. In making consideration of the stakeholders in the solution to the problem, it is important to first be aware of the role that each of these stakeholders plays in bringing forth this problem. This is important to help understand how each of these parties will contribute to the solution. This is because the solution cannot be holistic unless there is buy-in from each of these stakeholders. The solution to this problem requires a collective effort. Beyond even considering the role that each of these stakeholders, I will also consider their input. To be able to develop a comprehensive solution, it is important to listen to the different perspectives around the issue for one to fully understand the different factors that come to play in regards to this issue. It is therefore important to consider the input of the stakeholders in the solution to avoid bias in the solution that one develops.

4. How will you motivate individuals to buy into your solution?

The first way to motivate individuals to buy into the solution is finding a way to engage them in coming up with the solution. Engaging individuals even in the smallest of ways in developing the solution will help them develop a sense of ownership of the solution and therefore making it a lot easier for them to buy into it (Baugh, 2015). When they feel like they were part of developing it, they will most likely also want to be part of implementing it.

The second way to motivate individuals to buy into the solution is by showing them the value in the solution (Freeman, 2014). The value in the solution, in this case, would mean demonstrating to them how effective the solution will be in solving the problem. Prison overcrowding is a problem whose impact people already know and one which they already know they need a solution to. Bringing to the table a solution that gives them hope that the problem can be resolved will lead them to easily buying into the solution.

References

Baugh, A. (2015). Stakeholder engagement: the game changer for program management. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Dandurand, Y. & Griffiths, C. (2006). Handbook on restorative justice programmes. New York Vienna: United Nations United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Freeman, R. (2014). Strategic management: a stakeholder approach. Boston: Pitman.