Budgeting may be defined as the process of creating a specific plan that will dictate how one is going to spend their funds. Also, the spending plan is what we refer to as a budget. Therefore, budgeting simply involves balancing your expenses with your income. One advantage of having a spending plan is that it allows people to determine in advance if they have sufficient finances to undertake the desired activity. Budgeting is necessary and advantageous in that it allows:
Planning Orientation
The budget creation process moves the administration of any organization away from its short-term daily management and forces them to think about the long—term position of the business.
Profitability Review
It becomes very easy to lose track of where a company is making most of its profits during the daily scramble in business operations. Hence, a budget which is properly structured is able to pin point the aspects of the business which generate revenue, and which ones use the profit, this forces the management to reconsider as to whether it should drop expand some parts of the business or drop others.
Cash Allocation
In any business, resources are known to be scarce in nature. Thus, there only exists a limited quantity of cash available for investment in working capital and fixed assets, the process of budgeting helps the management to decide which combination of assets are worth capitalizing in.
The main objective of any organization is to make profits, and the only way profits can be realized is through the reduction of unnecessary costs. For each one of the allocated percentages for programming, proper evaluation must be done in order to determine the way forward. Since the state had a deficit of 157 million dollars, Carter had to make sacrifices in order to sustain the prison. Each of the percentage of the program must be reduced by a small margin, this will allow for the reduction of redundant costs which accrue due to the undertaking of these programs.
For education programs, the reduction of the percentage allocation will mean that the number of part-time instructors will have to be reduced by some level, and once the instructors are reduced, it implies that the wages and salary paid out shall be less, thus saving on costs. Inmates may also be encouraged to share the course materials; therefore, the prison would not need to purchase study materials for each inmate, and hence, costs shall be extremely reduced. Also, the administration of the prison may undertake a research survey in order to establish which programs are essential and which are not. In that process, the management shall capitalize on essential programs and eliminate projects that seem less important, thereby saving millions of dollars that are allocated to these projects.
Savings, on the other hand, may be made if the prison reduced the total number of inmates in these institutions. As it is known, a lot of funds are used to cater to the needs of the inmates and to be more precise; their medical needs require a lot of money. The most interesting fact is that the prisons are responsible for all medical expenses for their inmates. Hence, the larger the number of inmates, the higher the costs of maintaining them. If Carter could propose a reduction in the number of inmates, the prison would be able to save more funds, as the health care costs would be significantly reduced.
Recreational programs should be eliminated in the prisons. The main reason why this is important is because the inmates sentenced to jail imprisonment must have committed serious felonies. Giving them access to gym equipment not only makes the convicts stronger but also is a waste of government finances. Recreational programs, like the gym, should be replaced with increased manual labor. The funds wasted on this program may be channeled into other essential and effective programs like counseling programs or vocational programs. Programs that develop the inmate’s brains and skills, rather than the gym, make the convicts bigger and stronger.
From my own personal viewpoint, there exist some programs mentioned in the report that do not require a reduction in their percentage. First, is the counselling program, as we all know counselling is a very essential process in life. It makes people change their behaviors or ways, and to its success, we have been able to witness the lives of various people transform from bad to good. People who are in jail require counseling more than any other programs offered by these correctional institutions. During counseling sessions, the convicts get time to interact both in public and in private with the counselors, and they are able to open up about various issues that they undergo while in prison. Correspondingly, they are able to get advice from counseling experts on how to be better people in life and also how to cope with life within the penitentiary walls. Lastly, as a result of counseling programs in jails, there have been instances where convicts reformed, and some of them are pardoned due to their acceptable behavior.
Finally, vocational programs are key in prisons, and they should also be encouraged. These vocational programs equip the inmates with various skills, such as technician and craft. The inmates are, therefore, able to work and develop their skills even if they are locked up. There are instances where prisoners develop creative objects that may be used in the outside world, thanks to the vocational programs.
Reference
Peat, Barbara. (2011). Case studies in Corrections. Durham. Carolina Academic Press.
ISBN 978 – 1 – 59460 – 823 – 0
