The German legal system knows a similar concept in § 153a StPO. Basically, if a crime isn't considered particularly severe, and both the prosecutor, the accused, and in some cases the judge agree, the criminal charges are dropped in exchange for "stipulations" (typically restitution, paying a certain amount of money to the state or a nonprofit, working community service, anger management courses, ...) - which means you're never found guilty, making it a great deal in most cases.

The idea is that less severe crimes can be handled without the full overhead and without excessive punishment. In practice, this can be 'a bit' controversial, e.g. when Bernie Ecclestone resolved his corruption charges this way by paying 100 million EUR. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Ecclestone#Bribery_accu...