When I see articles like this I always think about a few things: 1) Hiring a consulting firm is a great way to get the heat off of your own back. It's amazing

When I see articles like this I always think about a few things: 1) Hiring a consulting firm is a great way to get the heat off of your own back. It's amazing this works too, because, at the end of the day, the consultants don't have control! They just make recommendations that you can choose to accept or not. NYC was in full control the entire time but here they get to shift the blame to a 3rd party without any actual control. What a great deal as a manager to remove culpability. 2) It's amazing how much everyone hates consultants and immediately begin to pile on them in these cases without any consideration for the culpability of those who took the recommendations. It makes #1 that much stronger! 3) Ultimately whenever I see this I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the people who took the recommendations and implemented them. Don't let them (the managers of NYC jails) shift the blame to an out group you're conditioned to hate when the entire locus of control is on the managers!!!