Administration of Justice Issue Area Plan--Fiscal Years 1995-97 (Letter
Report, 06/01/95, GAO/IAP-95-14).

GAO presented its Administration of Justice issue area plan for fiscal
years 1995 through 1997.

GAO plans to: (1) assess federal progress in implementing major crime
control initiatives and enforcement programs; (2) identify ways to
improve federal cooperation with state/local enforcement efforts; (3)
develop approaches for analyzing enforcement budgets and identify
opportunities for resource consolidation and cost savings; (4)
periodically report judiciary initiatives to Congress; (5) identify and
track the Bureau of Prisons' efforts to reduce prison construction and
operation costs; (6) ensure that prison construction standards are
implemented; (7) ensure that the Immigration and Naturalization Service
is addressing management weaknesses and improving its enforcement
efforts against illegal and criminal aliens; (8) assess the
effectiveness of Customs' reorganization and cargo and trade enforcement
efforts; and (9) determine if Customs is maximizing its opportunities to
reduce costs and generate revenue.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  IAP-95-14
     TITLE:  Administration of Justice Issue Area Plan--Fiscal Years 
             1995-97
      DATE:  06/01/95
   SUBJECT:  Law enforcement
             Illegal aliens
             Federal/state relations
             Cost control
             Federal aid for criminal justice
             Correctional facilities
             Government facility construction
             Crimes or offenses
             Customs administration
             Immigration and naturalization law
IDENTIFIER:  NAFTA
             North American Free Trade Agreement
             
******************************************************************
** This file contains an ASCII representation of the text of a  **
** GAO report.  Delineations within the text indicating chapter **
** titles, headings, and bullets are preserved.  Major          **
** divisions and subdivisions of the text, such as Chapters,    **
** Sections, and Appendixes, are identified by double and       **
** single lines.  The numbers on the right end of these lines   **
** indicate the position of each of the subsections in the      **
** document outline.  These numbers do NOT correspond with the  **
** page numbers of the printed product.                         **
**                                                              **
** No attempt has been made to display graphic images, although **
** figure captions are reproduced.  Tables are included, but    **
** may not resemble those in the printed version.               **
**                                                              **
** Please see the PDF (Portable Document Format) file, when     **
** available, for a complete electronic file of the printed     **
** document's contents.                                         **
**                                                              **
** A printed copy of this report may be obtained from the GAO   **
** Document Distribution Center.  For further details, please   **
** send an e-mail message to:                                   **
**                                                              **
**                                            **
**                                                              **
** with the message 'info' in the body.                         **
******************************************************************


Cover
================================================================ COVER


General Government Division

June 1995

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE ISSUE
AREA PLAN - FISCAL YEARS 1995-97

GAO/IAP-95-14



Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV


FOREWORD
============================================================ Chapter 0

As the investigative arm of Congress and the nation's auditor, the
General Accounting Office is charged with following the federal
dollar wherever it goes.  Reflecting stringent standards of
objectivity and independence, GAO's audits, evaluations, and
investigations promote a more efficient and cost-effective
government; expose waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in federal
programs; help Congress target budget reductions; assess financial
and information management; and alert Congress to developing trends
that may have significant fiscal or budgetary consequences.  In
fulfilling its responsibilities, GAO performs original research and
uses hundreds of databases, or creates its own when information is
unavailable elsewhere. 

To ensure that GAO's resources are directed toward the most important
issues facing Congress, each of GAO's 35 issue areas develops a
strategic plan that describes the significance of the issues it
addresses, its objectives, and the focus of its work.  Each issue
area relies heavily on imput from congressional committees, agency
officials, and subject-matter experts in developing its strategic
plan. 

The Administration of Justice issue area covers the Department of
Justice, the Department of the Treasury's investigative agencies, the
judicial branch of the federal government, and several independent
agencies.  GAO's work in this issue area generally seeks to improve
the efficiency and effectiveness of the justice system.  The
principal issues in the justice area include

  -- federal law enforcement's response, in partnership with state
     and local governments, to violent crime, drugs, and other major
     threats facing society;

  -- the efficiency and effectiveness of the federal judicial and
     corrections systems, as well as federal aid to state courts and
     prison systems;

  -- the Immigration and Naturalization Service's ability to support
     its enforcement and service delivery missions; and

  -- the U.S.  Customs Service's effectiveness in implementing its
     reorganization efforts, fulfilling its trade enforcement
     mission, and collecting appropriate revenues. 

In the pages that follow, we describe our planned work relating to
these issues. 

Events in the justice area tend to move swiftly.  Therefore, we
designed a flexible planning process that will allow us to respond
quickly to emerging issues.  If you have any questions or suggestions
about this plan, please call me at (202) 512-8777. 

Norman J.  Rabkin
Director, Administration of
 Justice Issues


CONTENTS
============================================================ Chapter 1


   FOREWORD
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:1

1


   TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:2

4


   TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:3

6


   TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:4

7


TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
============================================================ Chapter 2

Issue                         Significance
----------------------------  --------------------------------------------------
Law enforcement: How can      Crime has become one of the foremost concerns of
federal law enforcement,      the American public. To address this concern, the
working with state and local  Congress made many crimes involving drugs and
governments, more             firearms federal offenses and increased the
efficiently and effectively   Department of Justice's (DOJ) budget to
respond to violent crime,     investigate and prosecute them. In addition, the
drugs, and other major        Congress recently made billions of dollars
threats facing society?       available to states and localities to help them
                              combat violent and other crime in their
                              communities. Current congressional proposals, if
                              passed, would provide even more funds.






Adjudication and              Increasing the scope of federal crimes and DOJ's
corrections:                  resources to investigate and prosecute them has
What can be done to improve   created tremendous demands on the federal
the efficiency and            judiciary and corrections systems. For example,
effectiveness of federal      criminal trials in district courts have increased
courts and the correction     24 percent since 1989. Although both the Judiciary
system, as well as federal    and Bureau of Prisons (BOP) have received more
aid to state courts and       resources, including 85 more federal judges and
prison systems, given the     39,000 more prison beds since 1989, questions are
increasing demands placed on  being raised about how efficiently the courts and
them in an era of budget      prisons are operating.
constraints?


Immigration: What actions     Reflecting the mounting public concern over
can strengthen the            increasing illegal immigration, criminal activity
Immigration and               by these illegal aliens, and INS' apparent
Naturalization Service's      inability to effectively enforce immigration laws,
(INS) ability to enforce      the federal government is increasing INS
immigration laws and enhance  resources. The President's fiscal year 1996 budget
service delivery?             requests $2.6 billion for INS, a 27-percent
                              increase over 1995. However, INS' past management
                              record raises questions about its ability to
                              properly spend these funds. For example,
                              processing times for INS services have been
                              increasing and backlogs of applications are
                              continuing to grow.



Customs: Is the U.S. Customs  The U.S. Customs Service enforces the nation's
Service effectively           trade laws and generates the second highest amount
implementing its              of revenue annually--about $26 billion in fiscal
reorganization and            year 1995. Customs faces increased demands from
reengineering efforts,        recent trade agreements (NAFTA and GATT), its
fulfilling its trade          involvement in drug interdiction activities, and
enforcement mission, and      pressure from domestic and foreign businesses to
collecting appropriate        facilitate the movement of goods and people across
revenues?                     U.S. borders. Customs has undertaken a major
                              reorganization effort to more efficiently and
                              effectively satisfy these competing demands and is
                              investing $100 million in a modern information
                              system.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objectives                                Focus of work
----------------------------------------  --------------------------------------
l. Assess federal progress in             --Assess progress of DOJ's major crime
implementing major crime control          control initiatives, including violent
initiatives and enforcement programs.     crime, drugs, and health care fraud.
                                          --Assess federal support for community
2. Identify ways, such as "best           policing and other local crime control
practices," to improve federal            efforts.
assistance to and cooperation with        --Evaluate efforts to stem money
state/local enforcement efforts to        laundering and the illegal possession
combat serious crime.                     of firearms.
                                          --Assess DOJ's progress in developing
3. Develop approaches/methodologies for   enforcement performance measures.
analyzing enforcement budgets and         --Analyze DOJ/Treasury enforcement
identify opportunities for resource       budgets to identify potential savings.
consolidation and cost savings.

1. Report periodically to the Congress    --Analyze budgets to identify major
on the judiciary initiatives to increase  drivers of judiciary and BOP workload
efficiency and promote best practices,    and cost growth and to assess
including automation reforms.             initiatives to reduce cost.
                                          --Assess impact of criminal cases on
2.Identify and track BOP efforts to       judiciary workload, resource needs,
reduce prison construction and operation  and civil case processing.
costs.                                    --Assess state practices that may be
                                          applicable to federal court and prison
3.Ensure that the 1994 Crime Bill prison  operations.
construction standards have been
developed and implemented.

1. Ensure that INS is addressing          --Assess INS' management system and
previously identified management          organizational changes.
weaknesses.                               --Evaluate the process for identifying
                                          and removing criminal aliens.
2.Identify ways INS can improve its       --Assess the implementation of border
enforcement efforts against illegal and   control initiatives.
criminal aliens.                          --Evaluate initiatives to enforce
                                          Immigration Reform and Control Act
3.Recommend steps INS can take to         work provisions.
improve its processes for providing       --Evaluate INS' provision of services
services to legal aliens.                 to legal aliens and effectiveness in
                                          denying benefits to illegal aliens.

1. Determine the effectiveness of         --Evaluate Customs' reorganization and
Customs' reorganization and               reengineering implementation.
reengineering efforts, workforce          --Assess Customs' cargo compliance
realignment, and Customs management       measurement program, in-bond
centers.                                  transfers, and trade enforcement
                                          versus facilitation efforts.
2. Determine the effectiveness of         --Evaluate effectiveness of Customs'
Customs' cargo and trade enforcement      interdiction programs and
efforts.                                  investigative operations
                                          --Assess the adequacy of Customs'
3.Determine if Customs is maximizing its  current user fee system.
opportunities to reduce costs and
generate fee revenue.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
============================================================ Chapter 3

Issue                      Planned major job starts
-------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------
Law enforcement            --Criminal justice system's response to violent
                           felons and related recidivism
                           --Adequacy of federal laws and enforcement policies
                           regarding health care fraud
                           --Reauthorization of the Office of National Drug
                           Control Policy
                           --Community policing best practices
                           --Community Oriented Policing Services Program
                           grants
                           --States' use and control of Bank Secrecy Act data
                           --Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' efforts to
                           detect criminal sources of firearms
                           --Annual review of DOJ's progress in implementing the
                           Government Performance and Results Act



Adjudication and           --BOP workload/budget and initiatives to reduce
corrections                construction and operating costs
                           --Follow up on judiciary initiatives to reduce costs
                           and spread best practices
                           --Issues, such as costs and accountability, involved
                           in prison privatization
                           --Controls over the movement of prisoners
                           --The judiciary's ability to manage growth in
                           supervised release
                           --Judiciary implementation of automation fund reforms
                           for fiscal year 1997 reauthorization.


Immigration                --INS' progress in addressing management problems
                           --Institutional Hearing Program to deport criminal
                           aliens after incarceration
                           --Border enforcement activities at ports of entry
                           --Efforts to implement employer sanctions
                           --Efforts to establish a verification system to
                           determine employment eligibility
                           --Efforts to improve delivery of services to legal
                           aliens


Customs                    --Implementation of its reorganization plan
                           --Cargo inspection program
                           --Air and Marine Interdiction programs
                           --Office of Investigations
                           --Current fees and associated costs of providing
                           services
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
============================================================ Chapter 4


      DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.1

Norman J.  Rabkin (202) 512-8777


      ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.2

Laurie E.  Ekstrand (202) 512-8777


      ASSISTANT DIRECTORS
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.3

James M.  Blume


      CORE GROUP MANAGERS
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.4

Danny R.  Burton (Dallas)
Darryl W.  Dutton (Los Angeles)
Daniel C.  Harris
William O.  Jenkins
Henry L.  Malone (Chicago/Detroit)
Weldon McPhail
Rudolf F.  Plessing (Boston/New York)
Evi L.  Rezmovic


*** End of document. ***