Children and kids in Tennessee who are in danger of delinquency, neglect, or abuse are the primary focus of the city’s Department of Human Services. Child welfare, foster care, and adoption services as well as family partnership to reduce the likelihood of child neglect and abuse, are the primary focuses of this county’s juvenile justice and child welfare organization. The organization’s main priority has been to ensure the security of African American children and teens in Tennessee, who face a disproportionate amount of racism (Department of Human Services, 2022). This essay serves as an audit analysis of the budget or financial plan of the Department of Human Services agency in Tennessee. It focuses on the improvement of youth detention centers or youth forestry camps a need that needs improvement within the budget of this agency. Once the problem area has been pinpointed, a proposal for a budget to address the issue has been drafted. Discussed are the reasons for endorsing the proposed budget and the parallels and variations between the budget submission processes at the federal, state, and municipal levels.
Financial Plan
The Tennessee, Clarksville Department of Human Services (2022) has been overpaying on some while underspending on others, which has significantly influenced the agency’s ability to provide its services, as indicated by the financial indicators. The tendency to overspend or underspend on particular variables is easily observable, beginning with the fiscal year 2016–2017 and continuing through the fiscal year 2020–2021 (Gibson et al, 2022). For instance, between 2016 and 2021, there was a significant rise in the total funds reserved for the adoption assistance indicator and spending on essential measures such as intake investigations fell (Gibson et al, 2022). Because of the increased expenditures connected with tracking this indicator, the Department of Human Services in Tennessee is having difficulty improving its ability to assist children and the juvenile justice system.
According to Gibson et al. (2022), contends that resources must be allotted for investigations into cases of child abuse, neglect, and maltreatment to be carried out properly. He cites this as a need to fulfil the requirements of the law. Several roadblocks need to be overcome to conduct effective investigations into child abuse and neglect cases that lead to criminal activity (Department of Human Services, 2022). This is because of the sensitive nature of the subject matter. It would be necessary to make the essential modifications to the inefficient allocation of funds to various metrics to minimize the likelihood of essential services being provided to local communities in an insufficient manner. The Department of Human Services in Tennessee, Clarksville needs to correctly distribute funds to various sectors following the proportionate capital intensity of each of those sectors. This is to limit the likelihood of wasting money by either overspending or underspending.
Improvements
It is possible that the policy of the United States government of reducing funding for youth detention centers is to blame for the disproportionate number of African American children and adolescents in the United States. The amount of money allotted to promote activities in adolescent detention institutions during the budget year of 2020-2021 saw significant decrease compared to the amount allotted during the previous fiscal year (Burnside & Gaylord-Harden, 2018). These activities included admitting offenders into forestry camps and conducting behavior-oriented modifying programs. There is a shortage of resources, making it difficult to better the lives of vulnerable adolescents, particularly those from underrepresented groups like African Americans (Burnside & Gaylord-Harden, 2018). According to the research conducted by Gibson et al. (2022), children of color in society have a larger likelihood of becoming juvenile delinquents than white children have. There are several factors, including racism, unequal socioeconomic position, poverty, and drug trafficking, that contribute to an increased probability of juvenile lawbreaking among African American children and adolescents.
On the other hand, the Department of Human Services, run by the city of Tennessee, has greatly succeeded in promoting the health and happiness of African American children, adolescents, and families. The community-based model this organization employs has effectively enabled it to handle the disproportionately high number of African American children and adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system (Department of Human Services, 2022). Additionally, it has assisted in placing Black children and adolescents in foster care and adoptive homes.
Budget Proposal
Adjusting the budget so that more money is directed towards youth detention facilities or youth forestry encampments in Tennessee is the greatest way to address the issue of enhancing the quantity and efficiency of these facilities. As a result of reduced budget allocation for this issue or indication in the 2020-2021 fiscal year, the Department of Human Services in Tennessee has been greatly hampered in its efforts to fulfil its purpose. The organization’s top priorities are safety, improved well-being, and increased permanence for at-risk children and teenagers. To house a significant number of children and kids enduring neglect and abuse in the community and to guarantee that they have received all the services that would promote their well-being (Burnside & Gaylord-Harden, 2018). This organization is expanding the number of juvenile forestry camps and youth detention facilities it operates. The agency’s ability to carry out its mandate has been severely hampered by the lack of additional funding in its 2020-2021 budget. One indicator that has suffered from a lack of financing is adolescent detention institutions, as illustrated by the planned budget shown in Table 1.
Table 1
Justification
The Department of Human Services in Tennessee strongly suggests adopting the following budget due to its positive influence in allowing the agency to carry out its mandate. The justification for this recommendation comes from the following suggested budget: The quality of care provided to juvenile offenders would significantly improve if additional funding were allocated to the youth detention facility. Next, the proposed budget would be vital in supporting the building of extra delinquent detention cells in Tennessee, ensuring that a greater number is at-risk children and adolescents had access to the programs offered by this organization (Menjívar et al., 2018). As a consequence of this, the proposed budget would be essential for the organization to be able to enhance the lives of children and adolescents in Tennessee.
Federal, State, and Local Submission Process
The procedures for submitting federal, state, and local budgets have a great deal of similarity. For instance, a specialized committee at each level of government is responsible for developing and acquiescing the annual budget. However, several key differences exist in the budget proposals submitted by the federal government, states, and municipalities. The first contentious issue is the monetary imbalance, which makes it more difficult for governments to collect taxes in the ways they previously did. Even though it brings in the lion’s share of tax money in the United States, the federal government has a narrower selection of income streams from which to draw to balance its budget (Menjívar et al., 2018). This contrasts with the situation in local and state governments, which have a wider selection of revenue sources. Another important distinction is the time spent finishing the budget before it can be submitted. Submitting a budget for the federal government takes far more time and effort than equivalents at the state and local levels. In general, the researchers analyzed the process that the Department of Human Services uses to create its budget and made recommendations for improving it.
References
Burnside, A. N., & Gaylord-Harden, N. K. (2018). Hopelessness and delinquent behavior as predictors of community violence exposure in ethnic minority male adolescent offenders. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 47(5), 801-810.
Department of Human Services. (2022). Fiscal year 2022-23 Needs-Based plan & budget. Web.
Gibson, J. M., MacDonald, J. M., Fisher, M., Chen, X., Pawlick, A., & Cook, P. J. (2022). Early life lead exposure from private well water increases juvenile delinquency risk among US teens. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(6).
Menjívar, C., Gómez Cervantes, A., & Alvord, D. (2018). The expansion of “crimmigration,” mass detention, and deportation. Sociology Compass, 12(4), e12573.