Plea Bargaining and Mass Incarceration
The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. Overcriminalisation means courts have too many cases to try so plea bargaining has become a convenient mechanism for mass adjudication. Watch Premal Dharia, Executive Director of the Institute to end Mass Incarceration and Fair Trials’ Rebecca Shaeffer explain why plea bargaining has become both a facilitator and driver of mass incarceration.
Ok, hold on… first of all, if we didn’t have plea bargains, especially for sexual offenses/accusations, then going to trial would have a jury wanting to literally hang us. We would get 20 yrs in prison instead of the 2 or 5 yrs we are offered from the plea bargain. So… why is a plea always a bad idea?
And the second thing I want to say is that I’m so sick of this “sYsTeMiC RaCiSm” argument that’s constantly thrown around as if there aren’t white men and women in prison. Spare me.
By definition, systemic racism is embedded in the laws, policies and procedures of society and organizations. It manifests in a variety of area like education, health care, criminal justice, housing, and political participation. It sucks.
Maestro
I agree partly. Yes many jurors are out to hang someone if there supposed crime is something that has effected them personally or they have certain religious or social beliefs that they are willing to feel that out weigh constitutional law. But this is where a good defense attorney comes in. They can explain in clear terms where the jurors are forced to rule in favor of laws over emotional hang ups.
The problem is most people don’t have the resources to afford a good attorney that is willing or capable of deciphering what is needed in order to make this clear.
So you are stuck with plea bargaining. Where the prosecutor will trump up a menagerie of false charges against you, then come to you and pretend he’s going to do you a favor by dropping some of them if you will agree to sign a plea bargain. Where he says he will petition the judge for something less than the maximum for your cooperation. So you are stuck in a crapshoot where you can’t win or get a fair trial no matter what you do.
Yep, What he said.
Curious as to how many people here took a plea bargain even though they were innocent of all charges.
{{ and public urination, the report said.}} I Thought that was grounds to be arrested and to be put on the Sex Offender Registry??????
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/border-patrol-agents-rarely-removed-or-terminated-for-wrongdoing-according-to-internal-report/ar-AARsraX
Though the presentation doesn’t discuss race, one poster here couldn’t refrain from using this platform to declare that systemic racism doesn’t exist.
You really think it’s a good idea to drag FAC into such a debate?