Now more than ever, society calls upon criminal justice professionals to do more with less. Corrections and Law Enforcement budgets have remained the same or have been cut back in recent years. Meanwhile, most prisons are overcrowded, officers endure uncontrollable caseloads, and incarsiration costs are rising; the average cost of keeping an inmate in jail is normally $35-$65 per day.  This "do more with less" mindset has had a number of negative results:

During the last several decades, American prison and jail populations have exploded while the U.S. government's capacity to house and manage prison populations has remained virtually unchanged. Many facilities have been operating at or over 100% capacity for years. Additionally, taxpayers have largely rejected new taxes required to upgrade the system, but have simultaneously pushed for longer sentencing terms for offenders. This has left criminal justice professionals scrambling to make ends meet yielding negative results: 

     • Early release of prisoners
     • Felons transferred to county jails, mixing in with non-violent inmates
     • Manpower reduction at correctional facilities
     • Persistently increasing officer caseloads
     • Limited supervision of parolees
     • Insufficient coverage of rehabilitative programs
     • Increasing rates of recidivism
     • Heightened pressure on both state prisons and county jails