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The nature of a plea bargain
Plea Bargaining Literature Review
The nature of a plea bargain
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In conclusion, plea bargains are here to stay but they are diminishing our criminal justice system. Although there are many positive factors, the negative factors are over powering the positive. Our criminal justice system needs to realize that they are making more work by giving out plea bargains. With the only goals being incapacitation and rehabilitation, recidivism is going to continue to increase instead of decrease. With the increase of crimes comes more of the repeating circle of plea bargains.
Plea bargaining precludes justice from being achieved, where the consent to less severe sentences are given in favour of time and money. The case of R v Rogerson and McNamara, demonstrates the advantages of hiring highly trained legal personnel, which inevitably contributed to their lesser sentence. Thus, making it more difficult for offenders to be convicted.
A plea bargain is compliance between a prosecutor and defendant in which the accused offender agrees to plead guilty in return for some compromise from the prosecutor. The New Jim Crow, explains how most Americans have no clue on how common it is for people to be prosecuted without proper legal representation and are sentenced to jail when innocent out of fear. Tens of thousands of poor people go to jail every year without ever talking to a lawyer that could possibly help them. Over four decades ago, the American Supreme Court ruled that low-income people who are accused of serious crimes are entitled to council, but thousands of people are processed through America’s courts annually with a low resource lawyer, or no lawyer at all. Sometimes
Starting in 1970s, there has been an upward adjustment to sentencing making punishment more punitive and sentencing guidelines more strict. Martinson's (1974) meta-analyzies reviewed over 200 studies and concluded that nothing works in terms of rehabilitating prisoners. Rehabilitating efforts were discontinued. The War on Drugs campaign in 1970s incarcerated thousands of non-violent drug offenders into the system. In 1865, 34.3% of prison population were imprisoned for drug violation. By 1995, the percentage grew to 59.9% (figure 4.1, 104). Legislation policies like the Third Strikes laws of 1994 have further the severity of sentencing. The shift from rehabilitation to human warehouse marks the end of an era of trying to reform individuals and the beginnings of locking inmates without preparation of their release. Along with the reform in the 1970s, prosecutors are given more discretion at the expense of judges. Prosecutors are often pressure to be tough on crime by the socie...
One could wonder why plea bargains are even made. One reason would be that criminal courts are becoming clogged and overcrowded. Going through the proper procedure and processes that we are granted takes time. Trials can take anywhere from days to...
Sentencing is the process by which people who have been found guilty of offending against the criminal law have sanctions imposed upon them in accordance with that particular law. The sentence of the court is the most visible aspect of the criminal justice system’s response to a guilty offender. In Tasmania, the Sentencing Act 1997 was enacted to amend and consolidate the law relating to the sentencing of offenders. The crime rate in Tasmania is lower than it was 10 years ago but higher than it was 20 years ago. In the Australian context, Tasmania is below the national average of recorded crimes for the crimes of robbery, burglary and motor vehicle theft.
For decades, we have been made to believe that criminals are people who have done harm to our society, violating the laws of the land, and don 't deserve a second chance. They should be locked away, and the keys should throw away. Unfortunately, today, our world is full of crimes and our system is getting overcrowded with criminals. However, with recent laws like the plea bargain proofs that there is hope and a way out to every situation. A plea bargain can be defined as negotiations during a criminal trial between the prosecutor and the defendant which result in a more lenient sentence than would have been recommended with the original charge (Farlex). Some would say that the use, or abuse, of the plea bargain, allows criminals
Not every break with felony precedent worked against the accused. Occasionally, courts recognized the inherent disadvantage for those charged with piracy, granting limited counsel to defendants, something unheard of in felony proceedings. Courts were usually trying to minimize any post-trial cries of injustice by allowing representation, knowing the courtroom limitations on counsel and the structure of the hearings mitigated the potential risk to convictions. Paul Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts and President of the Court during the John Quelch trial, permitted defendants counsel, declaring before the court “The articles upon which you are Arraigned, are plain Matters of Fact; however, that you may no Reason to complain of Hardship, Mr. James Meinzies, Attorney at Law, may assist you, and offer any Matter of Law in your behalf upon
The Criminal Justice system was established to achieve justice. Incarceration and rehabilitation are two operations our government practices to achieve justice over criminal behavior. Incarceration is the punishment for infraction of the law and in result being confined in prison. It is more popular than rehabilitation because it associates with a desire for retribution. However, retribution is different than punishment. Rehabilitation, on the other hand is the act of restoring the destruction caused by a crime rather than simply punishing offenders. This may be the least popular out of the two and seen as “soft on crime” however it is the only way to heal ruptured communities and obtain justice instead of punishing and dispatching criminals
The system has gone as deep as to making it so that even if a person has not committed a crime, but is being charged for it they can agree to a plea bargain, which makes it so even though the person did not do it the system is going to have them convicted of it anyway (Quigley 1). “As one young man told me ‘who wouldn’t rather do three years for a crime they didn’t commit than risk twenty-five years for a crime they didn’t do?” (Quigley 2). The criminal justice system has scared the majority of the population into believing that even though they did not commit a crime, they are convicted of it.
The justice system in America is a failure and should be immediately reformed to a more standardized system that encourages reform over punishment. This is clearly evidenced by the 76.6% of prisoners that are rearrested within five years of release, the inequality of sentencing based on race or socioeconomic class, and the widely varying prison terms, which in many cases do not fit the crimes committed.
Suppose research showed that there were huge backlogs in the Alaska’s court system, punishing defendants who do not accept the offer of plea bargain has severe disadvantages. For instance, reducing the sentencing period for people who plead guilty encourages people to do more crime because people know that they will be less sentenced as long as they accept the offer of the plea bargain.
The United States has been affected by a number of crimes committed by juveniles. The juvenile crime rate has been increasing in recent years. Everyday more juveniles commit crimes for various reasons. They act as adults when they are not officially adults. There is a discussion about how juveniles should be punished if they commit heinous crimes. While many argue that juveniles who commit serious crimes, such as murder, should be treated as adults, the fact is, juveniles under the age of eighteen, are not adults, and should not be treated as such.
...ct that in less serious crimes the defendant will plead guilty in order to receive a better deal.
I feel that I learned quite a bit throughout this semester in Juvenile Justice. It is interesting to me how much the juvenile justice system has changed both for the better and for the worse. From the time of the child savers to the get tough movement, which we are still experiencing, the entire system has shifted almost entirely. It began as a system of helping and not punishing and now has shifted to a system that severely lacks rehabilitation programs for juveniles. I have spoke, in my previous reaction papers, of what I would do to change the juvenile justice system – focusing strictly on the idea of rehabilitating juveniles to make them functioning members of our society. I firmly believe that in almost all cases, a child deserves a second chance and should be given appropriate treatment.
The Criminal Justice system in the twenty first century is system that has collapsed and it is in mayor need of reforms that are going to fix many problems that we have to deal with and resolve. Prison overpopulation is one of the greatest problems that this nation needs to deal with because we have the highest incarceration in the whole world. Race has played a huge rule in the Criminal Justice system which has preyed on poor people of color. Reentry and recidivism has been a major contributor to our huge prison population that millions of people have fallen into. Our court system is in need to reform from its way that it prosecutes people and the laws that have mandated mandatory minimums for different type of crimes. All of these factors