Instructor: Peter Reuter;                               Room: Key 0119
         ph: 405 6367; fax 403 4675
         email: preuter@umd.edu

Time: Monday 4-6.45

Office: 2113 Van Munching Hall
         [inside dean's suite]

Office Hours: Monday: 2-4

Time: Monday 4-6.45

In addition to its analytic and substantive goals, the course aims to develop student skills likely to be professionally valuable: identifying and utilizing information sources other than the web (e.g. setting up and conducting interviews, locating agency documents); working in small groups; and making oral and visual presentations of structured empirical analysis; writing analytic documents for non-academic readers. A major qualification for doing policy analysis is the ability to combine oral presentations with the use of slides. Half of one class session will be spent on how to do briefings. Three classes will include presentations by practitioners.

You will be asked to work in groups of 3 and each of you will make at least two formal oral briefings. The primary written products will be policy memos, 10-15 page documents intended to provide analysis and recommendations on well-defined issues for specific clients.

The first class will be different from the others. In the first half of this session we will consider a specific proposal for an innovation in the criminal justice system as a quick case study in the policy analysis process. Many classes will combine both a substantive criminal justice or drug policy topic and a policy analytic methodological topic. Policy analysis involves simple economic concepts and those who write about the technique are often economists. This course will focus on cost-benefit analysis (CBA) as the technique that can most usefully inform policy analysis; the emphasis will be on technique rather than (very tricky) concepts of CBA.

On specific policy topics the goal is to interpret the available data and research in a policy analytic fashion. For example, having reviewed literature on the effects of tougher penalties for DUI violations and intensified enforcement, what kind of advice can one offer those who have to make policy decisions? The emphasis is on how to use imperfect (indeed mostly quite weak) research and data.

Finally, the classes will be highly interactive. You are expected to have read the materials beforehand and to answer questions, which will be the center piece of most class sessions. The purely methodological topics will be treated more didactically.

Assignments

Policy analysis is learned by practice. Hence this is an assignment intensive course; in compensation the assigned reading load is relative light. Your principal task will be three memos, two done in groups and one done on your own. The group projects may involve conducting interviews as well as collecting data from the agencies.

Assignment 1

I will give each of the five groups a specific policy issue and specific jurisdiction for research. The five topics are:

1. What should Montgomery County do to respond to concerns about the MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha) gang? [a starting point is a recent Washington Post article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/23/AR2006012300789.html

2. What should the state of Maryland do about aging prison offenders? [start with the Maryland sentencing commission’s report http://www.msccsp.org/publications/aging.html ] The assumed client is the cabinet Secretary responsible for corrections.

3. Should the state of Maryland adopt a policy of mandatory testing and graduated sanctions for drug-involved offenders? [start with Mark Kleiman’s essay at http://www.sppsr.ucla.edu/ps/webfiles/faculty/kleiman/harvard.PDF ] [assumed client: the head of the Maryland Senate Judiciary Committee]

4. How should the Governor Ehrlich respond to the recent discovery of methamphetamine labs in Maryland?[start with http://www.hidta.org/programs/docs/040922_Meth_Report.pdf and then look at more recent stories about the discovery of meth labs in Ann Arundel County]

5. Should Prince George’s County prohibit all liquor stores in the county from operating between the hours of midnight-6 a.m.? [Police Chief Melvin high testified in favor of this on Jan 27, 2005] [assumed client: Prince George’s County Council]

Given that exercise comes at the beginning of the course, I expect the analysis to draw on your general education, including criminology, but not to tackle, for example, cost-benefit issues. You are encouraged to make phone calls and set up interviews with key officials or experts. Use the Bardach 8 fold path as the basis for structuring your report. The emphasis is on the early parts of the 8 fold path: clarifying the question, collecting some basic data, identifying options and choosing criteria. A report that is strong on these and weak on the later tasks (e.g. projecting the alternatives and making recommendations) might still get a good grade. Also consult the three documents on memo writing that are on the course web site as resources. I expect that teams will have questions for me which I’ll be happy to handle by email or by phone.

The assignment is due in week 5, when class will be devoted to presentations and questioning. Each team will have 15 minutes for presentation and then 15 minutes for questions and comments. The memorandum should be handed in by 9 am, Feb. 27, to give me time to read. Slides will be handed in electronically after the class.

Assignment 2

The next step is to do work for an agency. Agencies that have agreed to participate include:
Office of the Montgomery County Executive
District of Columbia Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency
Montgomery County Corrections Department
Maryland Sentencing Commission
District of Columbia Pretrial Services Agency
District of Columbia Sentencing Commission
Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Agency

With each agency I have already had a general discussion about the potential topic. Your initial task on contacting them is to refine that topic into one that is doable in the time available.

You are welcome to use another agency if you have a good contact and/or it is more convenient. An Appendix to this syllabus is a sample letter agreement that I am sending the agencies that have agreed to co-operate; show this to the official with whom you are hoping to work.

Assignment 2 is due April 17, with a one page progress report due by the end of spring break March 26. Again, final memos are to be provided by 9 am of the due date and presentations at the class.

Assignment 3

This will be individualized. I will write up 8 policy problems (assuming there are 15-16 students), put them in a hat and at the end of the May 2 class each student will pick one at random; each topic will have two students who will work independently. Written memos are due on May 14; presentations will be on May 15; 10 minutes for presentation and 5 minutes for questions.

In addition to these, there will be occasional short exercises such as identifying and discussing (orally) a best practice site or making a short presentation about a reading in class.

All assignments, memos and slides should be sent to me as email attachments. I will write comments in the files in the Revise mode; this facilitates both my writing and your reading as compared to marking hardcopy. Please put your name at the head of the first page, along with your email address. For the group memos, include all names and email addresses

Grading

                             Class participation and exercises                20%
                             Oral presentations                                     20%
                             Joint Memos (2)                                        35%
                             Final Memo                                               25%

Text Books
        Bardach, E. (2005) A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving CQ Press (good guide to the practice of policy analysis)

Ross, H. L. (1992) Confronting Drunk Driving: Social Policy for Saving Lives New Haven, Ct., Yale University Press,. [exceptionally well integrated analysis; only needed in second half of class]

The remainder of the materials will be available on a course web-site. The url is
http://www.puaf.umd.edu/faculty/papers/reuter/draftSyllabus.htm
Username is CCJS720 (case sensitive); password is pol720.

Resources for memo writing
Foreman “Writing a Policy Memo”
Musso, Biller and Myrtle “Memo Writing, USC”
Goldman School “Memo Writing”
Also read the memos at the end of the on-line syllabus under the heading Oakland Halfway Houses; they present a good example of the kind of analysis and writing that this course aspires to teach.

Assignment
         Email memo by 9 am. Email briefing slides after class.

March 20 Spring Break

          Theories of the state and its obligation to its citizens. Applying these theories to a variety of criminal justice issues: prison privatization, Megan's law etc.

Readings
Moore, M. and A. Braga “Police Performance Measure: A Normative Framework” Criminal Justice Ethics 2004 pp.3-20
Buchanan, Allen and Deborah Mathieu "John Rawls' Theory of Justice as Fairness" in Cohen (ed.) Justice pp.25-34
"Megan's Law: Community Notification of the Release of Sex Offenders" a collection of articles in Criminal Justice Ethics Vol 14 (2) Summer 1995; pp.3-11 and 56-66
Logan, Charles "The Propriety of Proprietary Prisons" Federal Probation .September 1987; pp.35-40
Lippke “Thinking about Private Prisons” Criminal Justice Ethics 1997 (16 pages)

How agencies shape the behavior of individuals in them.
Can violent crime be reduced through gun control?

Readings
Wilson, James Q. Bureaucracy Chapter3 (“Circumstances”) and 7 (“Constraints”)
Cook and Ludwig “Principles for Effective Gun Policy” Fordham Law Review LXXIII(2) 589-613
Wellford, Pepper and Petrie (eds.) Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review Chapter 4: Interventions Aimed at Illegal Firearm Acquisition