Affirmative Action Programs of Four Component Organizations of the Department of Justice

Equal employment opportunity programs in several component units of the Department of Justice were reviewed to identify progress and problem areas in increasing the representation and improving the distribution of minorities and women in the work forces of those units. The organizational units investigated included the offices, boards, and divisions of the Department of Justice; the Bureau of Prisons; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. In order to improve their equal employment opportunity programs, the bureaus should monitor recruiting and selecting processes, develop methods for insuring equal opportunity in promotion practices, periodically perform effectiveness evaluations, and modify the complaint system. The Department should maintain statistics on time-in-grade to facilitate monitoring of promotion practices and patterns. Periodic evaluations of the effectiveness of the program should be helpful in discovering program problems and work force disparities. The use of top management personnel as equal employment opportunity counselors may adversely affect the complaint system by lowering trust in the process on the part of those who believe they have been discriminated against.