Plea Bargaining in the Criminal Justice System: Who is Really Benefiting?
Issues of Overcrowded Prisons and the Trade-Off
Now that we have discussed the average plea bargain rates we will discuss who it is benefiting. Plea bargaining is used to reduce lengthy sentences and receive lesser charges for a crime. There are however drawbacks from the use of plea bargaining. Some of these are things such as: an innocent defendant may be coerced into a confession and accept the guilty plea out of fear for a severe penalty if they are convicted. The second concern is that violent or habitual offenders may receive a lenient punishment and returned to the streets in a short amount of time. Thirdly, there has been public outcry that plea bargaining treats people unfairly. Due to this fact, there are some states that actually prohibit the practice.
Although the question remains, why use plea bargaining if it seems to be such a complex and dishonest system? The main reason is that it keeps our system going. By using the plea bargaining system we avoid serious congestion within the courts. While there are of course complications with the practice of plea bargaining this is true for most things in life. However when we weigh the pros and cons of plea bargaining, the pros outweigh the cons. There are far too many crimes committed in our country each day, which add up as the year passes. Without the use of plea bargaining the already over crowded prisons would be even worse.
While there are drawbacks, we must realize that the rights of people are the main concern. Of course there have been incidents of people slipping through the cracks, and people being coerced to plea guilty when they are in fact innocent, but we must take this with stride in knowing that justice does work. The criminal justice system is not perfect, but that is why we have laws that help protect our rights. For those people who feel that their rights have been violated they can take active measures. This may include appealing or even taking civil measures against those who have violated their rights.
As with any system we must take into account that there will be those who feel that the defendant's rights are being violated when the criminal is set free or given a lenient sentence. The judges, jurors and attorneys decide what is appropriate for the sanction. We are a society which places the power into these people, so in essence we all have a percentage of power within the system. We choose to elect the judges, and District attorneys who play a large part of plea bargaining.
Overall, I feel that the plea bargaining system is effective and for the most part it works. To remove a practice such as plea bargaining would cause serious chaos and overcrowding of courtrooms, jails and prisons. While there is the realization that the system can, and sometimes does fail, we must remain focused. In most cases the good outweighs the bad and that is what is truly important.
Published by Misha
Working professional helping people resolve their tax issues with the State and Federal Taxing authorities. Also enjoys volunteering and spending time with family and friends. View profile
- System of a Down Breaks Through with Another Hypnotizing Album! HypnotizeSystem Of A Down is back again with their latest release Hypnotize debuting at number one on the billboard 200! This is the second album in a two-album set that interlock musically and artistically.
U.S. House Approves Collective Bargaining for Fire Fighters, Police, an...On July 17, 2007, the United States House of Representatives passed H.R. 980 know as the Public Safety Cooperation Act of 2007. The law proposes to protect the right of collect...
Chief Justice of PakistanThe justice you get in the third world democracy- Justice and PlatoThis is a paper I wrote for a graduate class on philosophy and education that takes a look at Plato and his definition of justice as framed by the educational system.
- Combat Terror with a Criminal Justice Career
- Pursuing Criminal Justice
- Plea Bargaining
- Justice League: The New Frontier
- Mother Accepts Plea Agreement in Deaths of Her 3 Children
- Human Body's Circulatory System
- Boston, Massachusetts, Elections to Be Monitored by the U.S. Justice Department
- U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report Defense Counsel in Criminal Cases November 2000 retrieved on October 24, 2004 on the World Wide Web @: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/dccc.txt
- 87.1% who plea bargained their case, while only 5.2% went to trial.
- The criminal justice system is not perfect, but that is why we have laws that help protect us.
- While there are drawbacks, we must realize that the rights of people are the main concern.
18 Comments
Post a CommentI would argue that plea bargains should be eliminated completely. They are almost always based upon coercion by the prosecution that routinely presses the maximum possible charge they can so that they can plan on the plea bargain to resolve the case.
I would also argue that overwhelming our courts with actual cases would require us to reconsider that which we have made illegal.
The number of individual in jail today for victimless crimes, such as the simple possession of marijuana, would be the first thing we should and would address if the courts were to become overwhelmed by the prosecution actually having to address criminal justice in the courts. Why are we sending people to jail that have not violated the inalienable Rights of anyone? That goes against the very ideals as expressed in the Declaration of Independence that states, and I paraphrase, that the role of government is to protect our inalienable Rights.
Our government has no role assigned to it to engage in social engineering where no one's Rights are violated.
In fact our government has no authority based upon our ideals to "punish" anyone. Incarceration should be exclusively about providing protection of the Rights of the Individual from those that have demonstrated that they would violate those Rights. We, as individuals, have no Right of Revenge and "punishment" is an act of revenge. If we don't have that Right then we cannot delegate that authority to our government.
Plea bargains violate the very foundation of "criminal justice" as the individual is never judged to be guilty or innocent based upon the evidence presented in court. They are coerced into the plea bargain. Through the use of coercion a plea bargain is reached and coercion should never be a part of any criminal justice system.
I have an uncle with a neigbor who "witnessed" him messing around with a little girl.
What doesn't make sense to me is... The neighbor and her guy friend were standing there long enough to witness everything they had said in their statement, but neither of them thought to stop it? Not to mention... It was brought to the lawyer and the judges attention that before the "event" took place, my uncle had called her a racial slur (she is black).
Either way... During an interrogation, my uncle was under medications from having triple bypass surgery, however the local police station allowed the interrogation to go ahead and take place. Where, my Uncle had told us they kept asking one question right after the other then supposedly they stated that they have him admitting to messing with the little girl.
Anyway.... They did talk to the kid and they did talk to the kid's mother (my uncle's gf before the whole thing happened). Well, I saw the statement by
The Federal Government frequently goes after innocent people to maintain their internal quotas. Only really naive and stupid people, those who work for someone else and have no desire to take risk, believe that the Feds only prosecute the guilty. Because people are more or less a French mob our sentencing guidelines are so high that people almost always plead guilty to avoid the possibility of being convicted on a very technical argument of law. 97% plead guilty and probably 40% are innocent. Plea bargains are not the problem, its the existence of quotas at the federal level and a bloodthirst by the public be tough on crime even if it means convicting the innocent.
agreed
Bobbi-
crime pays. lawyer up
My Son, took a Plea Deal, for his Sentence to run Concurent with the State of Ny and The Federal Government, Someones Appeal was Oveturned, & Now they called my Son back, whom is Serving a 15.8 Year Sentence for The Feds in NY State, and 11 Years, for the State of NY, Ny State is now saying, If he does NOT cooperate with them, he is LOOKING AT LIFE, and none of his time in Federal Prison Has Counted for The State Of NY. He has been Incarcerated for 1o years, 1st Time Offender, NY State is Threatening Him, what do or does he do? PLEASE HELP
Actually, all states judicial systems exercise plea bargaining- Alaska tried abandoning the practice once but it didn't work. You also claim that the judges, jurors and attorneys decide the appropriate sanctions, however, that too is false. Jurors have absolutely say when it comes plea agreements and the judges involvement isn't very significant either. A plea agreement is made through a consensus between the prosecutor and the defender.
What the Public Pretender's do is they keep continuing and continuing the case while threatening you with long term if you take it to trial, then you finally get tired of going to court again and again and you take the plea. By the justice system getting everyone to take a plea, they get everyone in their clutches and then they control everyone virtually becoming a communist country.
to all those awaiting they're court date- please keep this in mind...DO NOT TAKE THE 1st DEAL, you will be royally fucked! your public pretender can do much better than the original offer!the more time u take the better numbers for them, so - In short, fight for your right especially if u know you're not guilty . THIS SYSTEM'S A JOKE !
The courts make it so hard for some that even if innocent you plead guilty just to get the case over with. Plea bargaining saves tax payers money but it also gives many people a criminal record even if they were innocent to the charge. The cost of attorneys and court are just to much for some hard working people to be able to afford one, therefore they agree to the plea bargain.