Each of the three branches of the criminal justice system has its own accreditat

Question

Each of the three branches of the criminal justice system has its own accreditation organizations. In each case, perhaps multiple accreditation agencies can be identified.  The major accreditation agencies are:  Law Enforcement – Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA); Corrections – American Corrections Association  (ACA); and Courts – American Bar Association (ABA).  Each provides guidance on how local agency should conduct operations.

Examine the three accreditation organizations, along with others you identify, presenting the reader with an understanding of the leading organizations, their purpose and their methodology. Then compare and contrast the organizations’ operations across the corrections, courts and law enforcement - type agencies.

Explanation / Answer

Law Enforcement – Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) :

Purpose

Every type of institution has an accreditation to over see, set regulations, auditing & compliance standards and accreditation. For law enforcement, that agency is the Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). They accredit various domestic law enforcement agencies and their training centres or academies

Methodology

Their methodology not just involves accreditations but also updating the accreditation standards based on yearly and quarterly learnings, the changing landscape of crime and law enforcement. They derive their metrics for accreditations by correlating metrics and their outcome in reduced crime and increased effectiveness. That's the methodology they use to set accreditation standards.  

Corrections – American Corrections Association  (ACA) :

Purpose

The ACA is a private organisation and acts as a third party auditor that accredit correctional facilities in the United States. Just like CALEA, they set regulations, auditing & compliance standards and accreditation but, for correctional facilities specifically.

Methodology

The ACA's methodology involves auditing the present condition of facilities and see how they compare when benchmarked against their standards. This rating also predicts the compensation of the officers in the correctional facility, the amount of funding it receives. Their metric range from hygiene conditions to incident reporting rates , safety and security, They also look at the potential abuse of other intangible metrics and powers like officer discretion. Officer discretion : Discretion in law enforcement means that the the police has the power to make a judgement call about the situation and take the action he or she deems necessary in the best interest on the suspect, the victim and the law. However this freedom is often abused and could be used to illegal actions taken by law enforcement officers.

Courts – American Bar Association (ABA) :

Purpose

The ABA provides regulations, auditing & compliance standards and accreditation for both private and public law universities. They also set the standards for the BAR test and the BAR council. However unlike the other two institutions above, the ABA is a committee.

Methodology

The ABA operates like a committee.  A committee is often elected to power by the key stakeholders of the organisation. They're generally brought together for administrative, regulatory oversight and supervision of projects. The group dynamics in a committee are more goal and project oriented than team member oriented. This means that they pick their council members from a mix of public and private institutions with extensive history and experience in law enforcement.

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