Implementation Essay Example for Free

Implementation Essay The article by Pressman and Wildavsky analyses the problems associated with the implementation of EDA plan in Oakland. The Congress established the Economic Development Administration which went to different cities with the mandate of empowering the minority groups by providing them with jobs. The administration chose Oakland as a pilot project to experiment how provision of incentives such as loans and public works could create permanent jobs for the minority groups. Years later, the project proves to gain no fruits with the construction work at stand still and the loans plan dead and thus creating no jobs for the minority population. Following the failure of the plan, the authors try to figure out the main reasons why a plan that had big expectations and the federal government invested a lot of money in did not workout. The article also aims at creating an insight in the implementation of future project based on what happened on the Economic Development Administration plan in Oakland. The authors use the situation at the Oakland Economic Development Administration to relate to other similar policies and project and make several recommendations in the implementation of public policies. The article is therefore useful to public administrators who intend to implement project in the future. Due to the high level of unemployment, the political situation and the possibility of riots in Oakland, the city was the perfect choice for the experiment. During the first stages of implementation, there was a lot of hope in the plan. It was a new project and was funded by the central government and therefore was given priority over other projects in the city. Due to this, very many people were concerned with the progress of the project. Leaders and the political elites were very interested in it and were very committed to decisions touching directly on the project. Moreover, the money available for the implementation of the project was sufficiently enough to reduce the unemployment level in Oakland significantly. However, the pressure in the implementation was so high and decisions had to be made fast (Pressman Wildavsky, 1984). Due to pressure that forced quick decisions, projects were chosen and endorsed hurriedly to create the much needed jobs. The original projects included 10. 65 million dollars being allocated for an airport hangar, 10. 5 million dollars for a marine terminal, 2. 2 million dollars for a port industrial park and 414,000 dollars for an access road. Later, other projects like hangars in small airports, air cargo terminal and airport tower were added to the list. Unfortunately, as the project was being implemented, some problems emerged. One of the major problems was the false characterization of the experiment by the Economic Development Administration. Previously, government agencies had worked in the rural settings and therefore had a mindset on how such policies were to be implemented. Therefore, it became very hard for them to change their approach in the case of Oakland which was an urban center. The excitements of the new project faded very fast while the changes in the leadership and the complicated governance in Oakland delayed the implementation of the program. The problems in contracting and delayed implementation resulted in an increase in the total cost of the project. For example the estimated cost of the airport hangar went up by over five million dollars between 1966 and 1968. The changes in the leadership changed the commitment of leadership in the project. As time went on, the leadership in Washington was less committed or concerned with the progress of the project which was basically due to the change in leadership. The Economic Development Administration was also faced with a dilemma of whether to strive to perform and promise since different companies had received loans but had not kept their promise. Many companies did not follow the agreement after receiving the loans. The program was faced with numerous problems such that the number of jobs created was much less than the anticipated at the launch of the program. After analyzing the implementation of EDA in Oakland, the article makes some recommendations based on the failures of the program. The first recommendation is that, in the implementation of a policy, the implementation and the policy cannot be separated. Policy makers should therefore ensure that implementation is part of the initial policy making process. To reduce delays, the policy makers should formulate means that can be used to accomplish the program and eliminate the possibility of quick decisions in the implementation process. If the process of making decisions is made simple by making the process simpler, the likelihood of delays and possibility of failure is greatly reduced. The creations of proper machinery in the implementation and execution of the policy is also essential in the success of the program (Hill Hupe, 2002). The article then relates the analysis of the Oakland scenario with other situations related to the Economic Development Administration such as providing foreign aids. In this situation, there are needs that must be satisfied combined with the need to spend the funds provided in a hurry. These need and the pressure therein does not provide the correct atmosphere for the implementation of the policy. The article concludes that combining different decisions in the implementation of a policy has some positive as well as negative outcomes. Therefore if a policy is good and the execution of the program is also good, then the possibility of positive outcome is high. Similarly, if a policy is bad and the execution is poor, the outcome is also positive. However, if there is a combination of good and bad, there is always a problem associated in the implementation and there will be negative outcome. Rather than the individuals involved in the policy implementation â€Å"knowing that† they should be â€Å"knowing how† if the implementation has to yield fruits. Having knowledge on the facts and methods of implementing the policy and how to make things happen is equally important (Pressman Wildavsky, 1984). The two authors, Pressman and Wildavsky make keys suggestions on how policies should be developed. Their suggestions are based on careful analysis of the Oakland Economic Development Administration experimentation. Although the details is the Oakland project are very interesting to the reader, the way the two authors apply these details to other similar projects in the country is more interesting. Although the project implementation took place over four decades ago, the analysis is still very relevant in administration of programs today. The most important lesson from the article is that policy makers should consider the implementation of the policy as important as policy itself. The article also acknowledges the role of interest groups in the success of any public policy.

Ford Motor Company SWOT Analysis

Ford Motor Company SWOT Analysis (S)trengths Ford is a well-known brand in the automobile industry and global markets, due to huge amounts of marketing and advertising. Ford is the one of the best known brands in the world. Ford has a greater amount of customer loyalty, and its individual brands have been enjoying the benefits of the good reputation. Ford has brands and models of cars that appeal to every kind of demographic group and cater for the needs and wants of consumers. Ford uses a unique concept of virtual assembly lines in their models through which they are able to reuse the same spare in their diversified model of cars. This enables Ford to lessen cost on production of new spares and competition market price. Ford provides the consumer more variety of cars and commercial vehicles, so consumer has more choices. Ford also supports racing teams which include NASCAR, Formula One and others. Through online marketing, Ford has the capability to provide the online consumer a selection of cars. Online, the consumer can customize the engine, colour, interiors and exteriors. Furthermore, Ford is maintaining the relations with high profiled companies like Suzuki and Isuzu to develop quality vehicles, in the part due to technological alliances between the companies. Ford is rich in operations and distribution efficiency. This is because manufacturing facilities operate its business in more than thirty countries and it enhances its manufacturing process in around 90 plants and facilities worldwide. The company always develops cars on standardized procedures and invest heavily in alternate fuel sources. Ford recruits qualified and skilled employees, maintaining a good relationship with them, by offering better work environments and competitive wages. Ford is more concerned about the working environment and safety aspects of the employees. (W)eaknesses The company has a lot of suffered due to product recalls, harming Fords brand image. This has  been a huge cost to the company, tarnishing the brand image and damaging Fords sales. Large unfunded pensions and various obligations are termed as the weakness of Ford automobile company. Ford takes more responsibilities in unfunded pensions, health care and life insurance obligations of the employee. Ford invests more money on maintaining a good working environment. Ford expanded its business operations in diversified geographical areas, so management is missing focus on performance and struggles with low productivity. Ford has kept increasing the productivity, while decreasing the cost and simultaneously counting the number of employees exit, decreasing employee loyalty towards the company. Ford does not have an effective cost management system and have not taken considerable efforts to overcome this, since they believed paying premiums in single supplier model. Ford does not concentrate and invest much for design phase and lack innovative design structures on their new paddle of cars. (O)pportunities The current Ford automobile company is producing the cars with low mileage and pick up. Ford has a great opportunity to produce fuel efficient cars and commercial vehicles. For example, the company produced vehicles that run on different forms of energy outside the petrol and diesel whereas cars can run on renewable energies like solar power and bio fuels. This can help the company to become pioneers in the industry. Ford has to expand more options in designing the cars and commercial vehicles are expected to switch toward the hybrid electric engines due to the limited petroleum. If the cars are designed based on electricity engines the consumers will show more interest to buy the cars, this is because when the car is run on electricity, the car repair charge will cheaper. Besides this, Ford has a chance to become more environment friendly company with cleaner engine emissions because hybrid engines are more fuel efficient and less polluting than conventional gasoline and diesel engines. Ford tried to diversify their market towards India and China in order to diversify their revenues because the two countries are well-known countries with large geographical markets and high populations. Most people in these two countries are interested in owning a four wheeler for their family. Ford launched a restructuring plan to improve the performance of its automotive business in North America. This plan aims to make the North American business more customer-focused, product-driven and efficient. The North American capacity is likely to be realigned to match demand, with 14 manufacturing facilities to be idled, resulting in significant cost savings and reduced employment. The way forward plan focuses on restoring Fords North American automotive operations to profitability. (T)hreats Increase the raw material like hard steel price and roll steel coil price will affect the margin price of the car. As a whole it will obviously affect the companys profit margin of the ford because of low margin price. Ford growth and development may effected by rapid growth in number of competitors in the automobile company. From the beginning America demanded automobile industry. Fords main competitors are General motors, Toyota, Honda, BMW, etc. Ford capital spending low on its operations and research development expenditure which could influence the company from going forward when compared to its competitors. The competitors are spending big amount on RD programmes. Although global warning turning out to be greatest threat and individual use of automobile vehicle increase the risk of further, the cars and other private vehicle are the part of basic necessity on a common mans view. Therefore this is believed that no real threat of substitutes exits today, but it is believed that choosing other forms of transport such as bicycles, public transports and sharing mobility would soon be imported in to the mind of people.

Strategic Human Resource Management And Challenges Commerce Essay

Strategic Human Resource Management And Challenges Commerce Essay Managers use the term human resource strategies to refer to the specific human resource management courses of action the company pursues to achieve its strategic aims. For example, Dell The essence of Dells competitive strategy has always been to a low- cost leader. Thats why human resource managers use various HR strategies to support Dells low-cost aim Dell deliver most of its human resource services, not through a conventional human resource department, but via the web. A manager tools section on Dells internet contains about 30 automated web applications. This allows mangers to perform human resource tasks that previously required costly participation by human resource personnel. The internet also check job posting, and monitor their total compensation statements. This dramatically reduces the number of human resource people required to administer these activities, and thus the cost of doing so. This is turn support Dells low-cost strategy. Now a days human resource managers face three strategic challenges. 1- One (as at Dell) is the need to support corporate productivity and performance improvement efforts. 2- Employees play an expanded role in employers performance organizations like Toyotas such a high technology team-based production are largely useless without extraordinary high level of employee competence and commitment. 3- The third challenge is that employers see that their human resource units must be more involved in designing not just executing the companys strategic plan. Todays stress on going competitive advantage through people renders such arrangements inadequate. Instead, top management needs the input of the human resource team in designing the strategy, since it is the team charged with hiring, training, and compensating the firms employees. Human resource managers will therefore need a basic functional understanding of how the firm makes money. What activities and process are most critical for value creation as defined by customers and capital markets? Human resource professional need to understand the basis of strategic planning and of the basic business functions such as accounting, finance, production, and sales, so they can take their seat at the table when top management is crafting the firms strategic plan. What factors should management consider in HRM? Recruitment: Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employee and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization. Recruitment Methods:- Internal existing employee Self-Applicant Supervisor/Manager Recommendation Succession planning Using Existing Contracts Unsolicited Enquires Previous Applicant Previous Employees Existing Employees Contracts. External Contacts:- Professional Referrals Job Centers Private Selection Consultants Management Selection Colleges/Universities Resettlement services Temporary Agencies Advertising/Media Press T.V/Radio Cinema/Posters Career Exhibitions Conferences/Open days 2-Job Analysis:- This is the process of getting detailed information about job. Here we give the importance of job analysis according to HRM. The Importance of job analysis to HR Manager. Job analysis has been called the building block of everything that the personnel department does. Some of the human resource activities that use job-analysis information includes selection, performance, appraisal, training, and development, job evaluation, career planning, work redesign and human resource planning. The Importance of Job Analysis to Line Manger:- Manager must have detailed information about all the jobs in their work group to understand the work-flow process. Managers need to understand the job requirements to make intelligent hiring decision. Since the Manager is responsible for ensuring that each individual is performing his or her job manager must clearly understand the satisfactorily, the task required in every job. Job Analysis Information A job description is a list of the tasks, duties and responsibilities (TDRS) that the job entitles. A job specification is a list of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAO) that an individual must have to perform the job. 3- Training and Developing Employees. The process of teaching new employees the basic skills they need to perform their jobs. This might mean showing a new web designer the intricacies of your site, a new salesperson how to sell your firms products, or a new supervisor how to fill out the firms weekly payroll sheets. Here I again quote an example of Wisconsin-based Signicast Corp. Decided to build a new, high- tech plant, or computerized plant. Terry Lutz, the firms president, know signicast would need a new type of employees to run that plant, and new screening and training programs to hire and train them. EXAMPLE The U.S armed Forces are taking army developed video- game-type training programmers called Full-Spectrum Command and Full- spectrum Warrior for training troops in urban warfare. Honda example: When Honda decided to build a new plant in Alabama, it had to hire thousands of new employees in an area where few people worked in manufacturing. Honda and the Alabama state employment agency first screened the applications by eliminating those who lacked the education or experience. And then gave preference to applicants near the plant. About 340 applicants per six-week session received special training at a new facility about 15 miles from the plant, two evening a week. It included classroom instruction, watching videos of current Honda employees in action, and actually practicing particular jobs. Finally HR department do the final screening. They interview the candidates, review their training record, and decide which ones to hire. 4- Performance and pay/Motivation and Incentives: Financial rewards paid to workers, whose production exceeds some predetermined standard. Basically this system was started in late 80s.If any of the worker or employee gives the best of him; he/she should receive some reward in shape of pay increase or incentives. 5-PROBLEM SOLVING GROUPS Being a good manager, he should make some department or group which can help employees problems. These problems can be helping new employees or helping the old staff with legal stuff or work issue. It can be personal issues as well. Like sometimes employees are having bad time in domestic life and cannot concentrate on their work. So these groups can help and guide the employee with more broad vision. 6-IMPLENTATION OF EMPLOYE S SUGGESTIONS In SHRM this factor is very important to listen to the all employees suggestions, whether the employee is new in the company or working in it for long. New comers sometimes bring new ideas with them; it might be from their previous work place or educational institute. And the old worker can help with their experience in the same work place. Good management always keeps on having employees meetings to keep them up to date and listen to all their new and good ideas. 7-Benefits and Services:- Indirect financial and non-financial payments received by the employees for continuing their employment with the company. They include things like health and life insurance, pension, time off with pay, and child care assistance.(Gerry dessler) Verizon Example:- Verizon communication, facing strong competition and the need to reduce its employees after several managers, needed a way to convince thousands of its employees to take early retirement. In this case, Verizon required a plan that was economically sensible, as well as one that complied with different laws that apply to retirement and other benefits. 8-Coaching / Mentoring:- Employees are trained and educated through methods other than teaching classes and seminars. Chief among these are management responsibilities of coaching, mentoring, and building your organization into a learning organization. Find coaching, mentoring, consulting, knowledge management and how to build a learning organization resource. In every company now a days there is new innovations and technologies are being introduced for profit maximization and customer satisfaction, due to that every employee need to be trained and come to know about innovation how to work with this new technology. EXAMPLE: Tesco is one of leading brand in supermarket industry; recently Tesco had introduced self checkout tills. This is a big innovation in supermarket industry and due to that customer who buys only few things has been no need to stand in a long queue he just use these tills, but some time customers dont know how to use it thats why Tesco trained their employees about this innovation for the better service provided to the customers. Creating a Mentoring Culture Build a Mentoring Culture Coaching for Improved Performance Leadership Success Secrets: Leadership Inspiration Group Mentoring Tips for Effective Coaching Mentoring and Baby Boomers: Mentoring Is a Strategic Business Imperative What Do You Mean My Company 9- Team Building / Work Teams Employee contribution, teams, and employee empowerment allow people to make decisions about their work. This employee involvement, teambuilding approach, and employee empowerment increases loyalty and fosters ownership. These ideas tell you how to do team building and effectively involve people. In this concept good or experienced managers built teams in which old and experienced employees leads these teams and these peoples know system of the company and know as well how to do smart work thats why new comers follow these peoples and done better job in few days. CONCLUSION: Strategy Human resource management is relatively a new term in the management but has very many important implications. By the introduction of SHRM the organizations have managed to improve their potentials. The employees and the organizations are connected to each other through SHRM. It has been the want of the organizations to formulate new ways to produce goods and services. It is the duty of the SHRM to find the right person for the right job for the growth of any company. It is the responsibility of the HR department to find the goal achieving people from the market and also train them to gain excellence. There have been introduced new techniques in SHRM which are useful for the HR managers for the uplift and perfection of the organizations. It is the responsibility of the HRM department to find and know the problems of employees and then to solve them. By this way they can retain low employ turnover, attract new employees and also improve of the employ development. In the modern world it is important for each organization to use its full potential. SHRM helps the organization to move forward and move forward quickly

Essay --

This essay explores the mutually beneficial commercial collaborations between the tobacco companies and major motion picture studios from the late 1920s through the 1940s. Smoking in movies is associated with adolescent and young adult smoking initiation. Public health efforts to eliminate smoking from films accessible to youth have been countered by defenders of the status quo, who associate tobacco imagery in â€Å"classic† movies with artistry and nostalgia. Both the entertainment and tobacco industries recognised the high value of promotion of tobacco through entertainment media. Each company hired aggressive product placement firms to represent its interests in Hollywood. These firms placed products and tobacco signage in positive situations that would encourage viewers to use tobacco and kept brands from being used in negative situations. Efforts were also made to place favourable articles relating to product use by actors in national print media and to encourage professional photographers to take pictures of actors smoking specific brands. The cigar industry started developing connections with the entertainment industry beginning in the 1980s and paid product placements were made in both movies and on television. This effort did not always require money payments from the tobacco industry to the entertainment industry, suggesting that simply looking for cash payoffs may miss other important ties between the tobacco and entertainment industries. So, therefore the tobacco industry understood the value of placing and encouraging tobacco use in films, and how to do it. While the industry claims to have ended this practice, smoking in motion pictures increased throughout the 1990s and remains a public health problem. The tobacco i... ...y has a long history of working to influence Hollywood. The power of film to promote the â€Å"social acceptability† and desirability of tobacco use, particularly among young people, is a continuing inducement for the tobacco industry to utilise this medium. The increase in tobacco use and the continuing appearance of specific brands in movies since 1990 may reflect continuing activities by the tobacco industry, despite the industry's voluntary restrictions on such practices. It may be that, as with provisions of the industry's voluntary advertising code that nominally restricts print marketing to children, the industry finds ways around its own rules. Until something is done to reduce and eliminate pro-tobacco images on film, motion pictures will remain one of the most powerful forces in the world promoting tobacco and serving the tobacco industry's financial interests.

Kudler Fine Foods Database Analysis Essay -- Business Database Invento

Kudler Fine Foods Database Analysis Overview Kudler Fines Foods is a rapidly growing small business located in Southern California. Founded in 1998, Kudler specializes in providing quality gourmet foods to a wide range of customers. When Kudler opened its first store back in 1998, Microsoft Access was chosen as the database platform used to track inventory, orders and customers. While this initially proved to be an adequate solution, it has since outgrown its usefulness. Now with three stores and a fourth due to open soon, a new database management system must be put into place. One of the most detrimental problems with the Microsoft Access database is that it is limited to a file size of only two gigabytes. While this may initially seem like a large files size, it can rapidly grow and eventually reach this maximum size in a relatively short amount of time. This one drawback alone is reason enough to pursue a better solution. Another aspect of Microsoft Access that does not scale well is that it will not accommodate multiple users simultaneously. The database needs to be updated continuously by multiple users at each store. Running one instance of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 in a centralized location could easily handle the database needs of all of the store locations. Connections to the database could be made via Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections over the Internet. Updates to the database can be further streamlined by developing and utilizing a web based interface. The best solution for Kudler Fine Foods would be to implement an enterprise level database solution. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 would be a great fit for the database needs of Kudler Fine Foods. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 will easily meet the current needs of Kudler Fine Foods and also meet their needs of the future as they continue their growth. Existing Database Overview Currently the Kudler database contains nine tables. Each table is designed to support and facilitate the filling of orders placed by customers in the stores. Based upon the description of the tables that was posted on Kudler’s intranet and our analysis, the tables may be described in the following manner: The Customer table contains demographic data for each of Kudler’s customers. The data in this table is used to access the name and address of customers for order processing and for special maili... ... in Windows NT would automatically change and update the SQL Server password. If separate logins are desired, they will also be possible with the Mixed Authentication offered through Microsoft SQL Server 2000. The security settings will be able to be further customized by the use of permissions and roles. A permission allows a user to do something within the database, whether it is accessing and manipulating data or creating new objects within the database. These settings can be individualized, or given to a group of users by roles. Grouping the users into roles, either server or database roles, allows a way to assign permissions to multiple users at one time. For example, a salesperson would not have the same permissions as a manager probably would. Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The changes and updates that we have outline throughout this paper would greatly improve and enhance Kudler’s operations. This would be a much more effective, efficient database that would not only serve them well today, but allow for growth for tomorrow. References Developer.com – Retrieved on June 3, 2005, on the World Wide Web:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.developer.com/tech/article.php/10923_721441_1

Ethical dilemmas Essay

Any field of study has its dilemmas and nursing is no exception. The dilemmas in question tend to take a higher dimension and involve the nurse educators as well. Their dilemmas range from ethical or legal to moral. Some of these dilemmas involve trying to meet the needs of the community around you. Trying to address environmental issues is another dilemma. Dealing with challenges form your students is also another dilemma, and many more (Foot, 2002,). A close tool at the whole topic shows that the educator in question may be faced with the dilemma of not having enough content for his students. This may make him feel threatened and frustrated, because he may end up teaching the wrong thing to the students who may end up endangering the lives of the patients, they will be handling, after college (Foot, 2002). If contents is not enough the educator may feel threatened by producing half-baked students. This should be well considered and ensure it does not happen. However it is normally common especially when the educator is still fresh with his work (Foot, 2002). The educator in question may also be faced with the dilemma of early preparations. This normally happens when he does not know how to prepare or when to prepare. In the process students end up not getting enough information form their educator (Scott, 1998). On the side of the communities needs is another problem, especially if the educator does not know them. Since the educator is someone with his or her professional then it is very obvious and possible not to understand the needs of the community better. This normally leads to a lot of misunderstanding and frustrations (Cohen, 2003). The dilemmas in question also tend to be challenges, especially form students. This is true, especially when the students come for advice. The nurse educator will normally not know what to tell his students when he himself has no enough knowledge of their needs. It is a serious issue as some students ignore the departments of guiding and counselling and prefer to seek the advice of their educators. Unless the higher authorities know better how to address this issue there will always be a problem (Cohen, 1998). Other challenges that face the most nurse educators are class preparations, how to keep in touch with the current affairs, cases of students lying or cheating in exams, dealing with death cases, and also wanting to be a role model (Rodin, Collins, 1991). As for class preparations, this is true when the nurse educator tries to prepare enough or adequately for the classes. It is more serious if the educator is involved with students who normally ask very hard questions. This can always make the educator feel inadequate, and that does not know how to prepare for classes better, it normally becomes another problem (Denhardt, 1988). Keeping in touch with the current affairs is important and enjoyable when the nurse educator tries to keep in touch with the current affairs; there is always the problem of maintaining himself in his profession. This is a very big dilemma; unless the higher authorities address it properly then it is still a major problem for the nurse educator (Cohen, 2003). Another problem is that of trying to be a role model to his students. This is also a big dilemma since it involves knowing at first hand how to go about it. The educator should be provided with enough information about it. This is to say they should be taught early enough in colleges or universities (Scott, 1998). The higher authorities must change their attitude from the non- supportive one to a more positive and responsive one. The ethical dilemma faced by the nurse educators are worrying especially this one of catching a student cheating in the examination. This should always be handled very sensitively. Unless the higher authorities understand the educator’s needs then misunderstandings will always come in even in such a case (Denhardt, 1988). The governments should think hard on how to address these dilemmas. They are serious ones, and should not be allowed to happen in any way. Once they are properly handled this will promote and give morale to the educators in question and also improve the stands of living of people (Rodin, Collins, 1991).

Insanity Defense Essay

Imagine for a moment, someone has just inexplicably murdered a mother or child. Imagine the rage, tearing you apart, physically making you shake or be ill. At the same time this rage is entangled and somewhat smothered by the crushing grief welling up inside of you. A thought flashes into your head, â€Å"I will kill the person responsible for this!† but our sanity stops that action. A persons insanity allows you to know that to actually carry out a murder is illogical, immoral, and illegal. You know that your actions will land you a spot in hell next to all the other Murders. That thought process is exactly what separates you from a killer. Although with the right lawyer, the person who committed this tragic crime may someday be able to be free. This murderer may be able to push such anguish onto another family because they were let free on grounds of temporary insanity. The insanity defense should be wiped out nationwide unless certain tests of mental insanity are met and a patient has a history of a mental illness. The insanity defense is a criminal defense that is used when the defendant’s case states that the crime occurred because the defendant had a severe mental disease or defect and was unable to apprehend the wrongfulness of his or her acts. When someone claims insanity, they are not held responsible for their criminal actions. There are two pieces of evidence the first being the accused was unable to tell right from wrong and the second that the accused did not intend to act the way he or she did and/or could not control their behavior. The insanity defense should not be a valid excuse to free criminals. Insanity is a legal term, not a psychological one, and experts disagree whether it has valid psychological meaning. Critics of not guilty by reason of insanity have claimed that too many sane defendants use the insanity defense to escape justice; that the state of psychological knowledge encourages expensive â€Å"dueling expert† contests that juries are unlikely to understand; that, in practice, the defense unfairly excludes some defendants. Research on not guilty by reason of insanity fails to support most of these claims but some serious problems may exist with this. The insanity defense goes back to 1843 when a man by the name of Daniel McNaughtan attempted to assassinate Edward Drummond, Secretary to the  British Prime Minister Robert Peel. McNaughtan was under the impression that he was being prosecuted, so he reacted with murder. Daniel McNaughtan killed Robert Peel’s secretary. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Following his trial, he spent the next twenty years in a mental asylum until his death. Soon after this case, the English House of Lords set standards for the insanity defense which they called McNaugtan’s Rule: â€Å"Every man is to be presumed to be sane, and†¦that to establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wro ng.† (Encyclopedia Of Everyday Law) Soon after this rule became legal, the United States criminal justice system adopted this precedent. In 1981, after the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, the insanity defense received a lot of harsh publish criticism. John Hickley was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Various people argued that Hinckley was guilty because the premeditation of the crime committed proved him to be sane, therefore the insanity defense should not have proved him not guilty. Hickley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and remains in psyciatic care. This allows the mentally ill defendant to be found liable of his or her crime, but requires them to seek psychiatric treatment or be placed in a mental hospital. When the defendants are well enough, they are moved to a prison to serve their sentences. Because of cases like this, the insanity defense still undergoes a lot of public criticism today. Although, during a more recent trial of Jeffrey Dahmer, who mutilated and consumed his young victims, the defendant tried to use the insanity defense, but the jurors found the criminal both sane and guilty. This case showed that the insanity defense does not work for all criminals and supported the public’s criticism of the insanity defense. In another famous case, the Unabomber case, defendant Kaczynski refused to allow his attorney to present an insanity defense, and instead pled guilty and was sentenced to a life in prison. Had he let his attorney go through with the temporary insanity plea, there is a good chance that Kaczynski would be a free man today and could potentially kill again. The insanity defense does not eliminate the responsibility of a criminal act from the  person committing the crime; instead, it is a defense mechanism for criminals who argue that at the time of the crime the defendant did not have willful intent due to a severe mental defect or disease. As stated before, numerous people are opposed to the insanity defense. They are against the insanity defense because they see it as a means where the defendant can avoid the consequences of his or her action s. People fear violent crimes and will be more apt to prosecute a criminal versus allowing the criminal another chance. The public, as they should be, is shocked when a criminal is successful in pleading insanity, is sent to a mental institution, and then is released once deemed â€Å"cured† by a team of physicians. The public does not see this as punishment, because it is not. A short stint in a mental institution is nothing compared to serving hard time. Some studies suggest that prison time is ineffectual, that may be but isolating violent criminals is a public safety matter. If left to their own devices, there is a very real possibility that they may strike again. The temporary insanity plea is almost always used in cases of extreme mutilation, murder, and other horrific crimes, yet after undergoing a physiological evaluation some of the most vile people earth are allowed to walk free. Incomprehensibly, the very people who most deserve to be locked up for life are the ones who most often get off by claiming temporary insanity. Due to the violent nature of there crimes it is not a stretch to claim that they were insane. The vast majority of violent criminals are repeat offenders, and that affects every taxpayer in the United States, because it costs tens of thousands of dollars just to run a criminal through the justice system, not to mention the cost of providing care for them afterward. Once a person has proven they have the capacity to commit such an offence, they have proven that they are not fit to enjoy the freedoms that we as Americans are entitled. The insanity defense is an excuse for criminals to break the law and have no bearing on p unishments. In most criminal cases the insanity plea is just a defense strategy aimed at delivering guilty defendants from serving time in prison or getting the death penalty. Most defendants that are found guilty by reason of insanity are released from the mental hospital years if not decades earlier than they would have been if they served their regular prison sentence. The insanity defense allows criminals to avoid the punishments they should be receiving for the crime they committed. When  someone is found not guilty by reason of insanity, jurisdictions require that the person spend at least some time in a psychiatric facility; if not automatically, many states require commitment to a psychiatric facility on grounds of mental illness, dangerousness, or both; most states do not have a limit on the amount of time that someone can be institutionalized insane. How long they spend in an institution also varies by state, but on average most stay three and a half years; in New Jersey 35% of the sample were still in institutions 8 years later; in Michigan it was 9 1/2 months; in Illinois it was 17 1/2 months, however, in this sample over 70% had been found incompetent prior to trial and had spent an average of 38.4 months in institutions. (Washington Post)= In the early 1990’s involving eight different states a study was conducted. They found that less than one percent of criminal defendants used the insanity defense. Only a quarter of these resulted in successf ul acquittals. Today a number of states have replaced the option of pleading â€Å"not guilty by reason of insanity† with pleading â€Å"guilty but mentally ill†. Currently, Idaho, Montana, and Utah banned insanity defenses, along with the supreme courts ruling. Along with this, between sixty and seventy percent of cases in which the insanity plea is invoked are for crimes other then murder. In actuality, it is used approximately 0.9% of the time. There are 51 different types of insanity defenses in the United States, one for each set of state laws, and one for federal law when dealing with someone pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. With astronomical operating costs of a psychiatric facility that increase the tax burden on every tax payer in the nation, especially the maximum security facilities that this caliber of criminal is housed at, the temporary insanity precedent set forth over a century ago should be phased out. Unfortunately, murder and violent crime has and will continue to happen as long as there are human beings living in close proximity, it is and ugly and regrettable reality of human society. There is no real solution to this horrible truth, but the closest and most logical option to preventing the deaths of more innocent people is for temporary insanity regulations to become much more strict. This will inevitably save lives, for if just one murderer has a second opportunity to kill another person that is one more person that is needlessly killed because the killer was given a second chance and not put in prison the first time they proved they have the  capacity to take a life. Works Cited â€Å"Insanity Defense†. The Lectric Law Library’s Lexicon. 2 February, 2009. 12 February, 2009.http://www.lectlaw.com/def/d029.html Martin, John P. â€Å"The Insanity Defense: A closer look†Ã¢â‚¬ . Washington Post. 27 February, 1998. WP. 24 February, 2009. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/local/longterm/aron/qa227.html â€Å"Other U.S. News: AMA Opposes Insanity Plea.† Facts On File World News Digest 23 Dec. 1983. World News Digest. Facts On File News Services. 23 Feb. 2009. â€Å"Supreme Court: Arizona Insanity Defense Law Upheld.† Facts On File World News Digest 29 June 2006. World News Digest. Facts On File News Services. 23 Feb. 2009.