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Pros And Cons Of Plea Bargaining

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Plea bargaining is essential to the efficient function of the criminal justice system, where such agreements can conserve judicial and prosecutorial resources and offer defendants alternatives to trial. Plea agreements accomplish this by allowing defendants to plead guilty in exchange for certain benefits, which then reduces the amount of cases going to court. When fewer cases go to trial, resources can be allocated so that more serious cases can be tried in court, while lesser offenses can be resolved quickly through a plea, allowing often overworked judges and prosecutors to devote less time to individual cases, and complete more cases within a given time period.
In contrast, if all cases went to court it would be infeasible to devote …show more content…

Pleas also give the defendant some certainty in sentencing, where often charges are reduced or withdrawn, and the range of sentencing options decreases when a deal is struck with the prosecutor. The mitigation of the sentence can have a positive effect on the defendant, because it has been shown that longer and harsher sentences do not reduce the risk of recidivism and can be detrimental to the offender. Longer jail terms are also more expensive than less restrictive sanctions, so this can also reduce the spending of state money.

and spare victims the trauma of testifying in …show more content…

Additionally, without an agreement it is highly likely that the charges the defendant will face will not be reduced and increases the stakes for the defendant, especially if the charges laid have sentences with mandatory minimums or a large range of sentences. This difference between the full sentence time and the plea agreement can also cause the defendant to theink the plea is a "good deal", although generally the strength of the case is proportional to how good the deal is for the defendant.

The finanical expenses of going to court are also a factor in whether or not defendants plead guilty. Along with the costs of hiring legal counsel, the defendant will likely miss days of work and pay for other expenses such as child care (sherrin). This factor generally impacts lower class defendants, because they will not be able to pay for justice and will be forced into taking a guilty plea because they cannot afford to fight charges. This financial coercion will occur indiscriminately for both guilty and innocent defendants and lead to more guilty

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