Mass incarceration: A new theory for why so many Americans are in prison

Re:Mass incarceration: A new theory for why so many American... by netcan on Friday October 02, 2015 @08:33AM (#10318041)

Out of these two, the plea bargaining system always seemed the most corrupt to me. It's also widespread (in some form^) and predates privatization.

I say some form, because confessions forced with threats of far worse punishment are a long unbroken tradition. It used to be more common for them to happen after sentencing, say during your punishment.

The modern form usually revolves around an enormous range of potential punishments. 6 months probation if you confess/bargain, 6 ears in jail otherwise. It's especially malicious because it's all happening between lawyers, without judicial involvement. Well paid lawyers are important in courts too, but at least there is a neutral judge in the room.

It's not unique to the US.

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Re:Mass incarceration: A new theory for why so many American... by spacemanmatt on Friday October 02, 2015 @08:34AM (#10318044)

Judges aren't neutral. They're only supposed to be neutral.

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Re:Mass incarceration: A new theory for why so many American... by happyscrappy on Friday October 02, 2015 @08:52AM (#10318126)

There was a movement to get everyone to decline all plea bargains to try to swamp the system, but of course these are criminals who will likely lose their case in court and end up serving a longer sentence so it never went anywhere.

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Re:Mass incarceration: A new theory for why so many American... by JackFr on Friday October 02, 2015 @10:13AM (#10318638)

Interesting thing is that one of the largest plea bargain use-cases are DUI first offenders, a group for whom many that is there only interaction with the criminal justice system -- and there are some white middle-class suburbanites who loooooove plea bargains then.

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Re:Mass incarceration: A new theory for why so many American... by happyscrappy on Friday October 02, 2015 @10:34AM (#10318802)

And what? It is bad that they don't usually commit crimes? Or just because they are white? First time offender plea bargains are the best chance to reduce prison population.

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Re:Mass incarceration: A new theory for why so many American... by JackFr on Friday October 02, 2015 @11:23AM (#10319107)

It's not bad -- my point is that the class of the (admittedly stereotypical) complainer about plea-bargaining, is also one of its bigger beneficiaries. That probably wasn't clear based on the comment I replied to.

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