The Cube: Learning to Manage the Multi-sector Delivery of Criminal Justice Services

Abstract

This paper discusses a new course designed to prepare MPA students to manage the multi-sector delivery of public services. Many areas of public service, including criminal justice, are increasingly delivered through partnerships involving the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. These new service delivery arrangements have coevolved along with new tools of governance. The course described in this article introduces students to the tools approach to public action (Salamon, 2002) and examines the legitimacy, accountability, and stakeholder issues associated with service delivery in each of the sectors. A new conceptual framework, referred to as the cube, is presented to help guide student learning and research. Pedagogical techniques include group work with a peer evaluation, computer-mediated study and communications, and original case study development through a process of multiple iterations. The overall approach, though focused on the criminal justice system, may serve as a guide for examining other fields in which public services are provided through complex, multi-sector relationships.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard Culp

Richard Culp is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and serves as coordinator of the undergraduate Criminal Justice Administration and Planning major. Culp received his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the City University of New York in 2001. His research and teaching focus on organizational behavior and public policy, and his practitioner experience spans both the public and nonprofit sectors and includes work as the administrator of a juvenile detention center in New York, a juvenile reform school in Florida, and a multi-program youth services agency in Texas.