Scenario
A panel of speakers has been put together to talk about balancing the criminal justice budget for your state with other state priorities, such as education and health care. The panel includes the following people:

· a police officer seeking funding to hire more police officers

· a politician advocating the construction of a new prison

· a psychologist advocating for early intervention programs for delinquent middle school students

· a criminal justice reform advocate suggesting a policy shift toward shorter prison sentences

· a teacher suggesting the state should reallocate money from criminal justice programs to education

Prompt:

You are an attendee who plans to speak at this meeting. Using real data on crime rates, help make the case for or against one speaker’s funding priorities. In your answer, explain which source of crime statistics you would choose to make your case and why.