Plea Bargaining In The Criminal Justice System

Plea-bargaining constitutes one of the staples of the American Criminal Justice system. The practice entails an agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant in criminal cases where for the most part the defendant forgoes his trial by pleading guilty to his respective charges. By pleading guilty, the defendant receives a less severe charge compared to the original. The plea by the defendant saves an enormous amount of time for both parties since they do not allocate resources in order to prepare for trial. Similarly, the availability of money is also a factor of the plea-bargaining practice because instead the defendants can save a substantial amount of money the trial might cost. Theoretically, with the majority of criminal cases using

Therefore, the argument supports the idea of plea-bargaining hurting the justice system. The thinking behind this is “since both the defense and prosecution parties depend on their power to negotiate a deal, instead of winning a trial, the justice system might suffer, ” (15 Serious Advantages and Disadvantages of Plea Bargaining, n.d.). Since plea-bargain relies on a mutual agreement, defendants plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence, which means that theoretically the system built on the thought of “ let the punishment fit the crime,” sacrifices punishment in exchange for less trials throughout the year. Although plea-bargaining might offer leeway for some offenders, the criticism fails to consider that plea-bargaining usually reduces sentences, while not completely eliminating sentences. Evidently, the practice still holds citizens accountable for their actions, while simultaneously punishing them. Although, in theory, plea-bargaining could potentially hinder the justice system and might offer leeway to criminals, in practice it helps the courts to operate in a more efficient manner. Given these points, the practice may have its deficiencies, however, the practice has space to for change and thus should removed because the justice system relies on plea-bargaining in order to