Plea bargins

Plea bargaining is when a prosecutor offers the defendant in a criminal case the chance to plead guilty to a lesser offence and avoid sitting through a lengthy trial and possibly getting the maximum sentence if found guilty for the original charge. Plea bargains are good for defendants because the have the opportunity to negotiate an exact sentence that they will serve or in the case of a potential death penalty case if the circumstance is right they may be able to plea out of the death penalty in exchange for a life sentence. Recent legislative changes have led to an estimated 85 percent of nonviolent offenders being sentenced to some form of intermediate sanctions program, such as day fines, intensive probation services, electronic in-home monitoring or shock incarceration. Longer sentences and prison overcrowding led to a boom in building new jails and prisons in the '90, but about 10 years ago, fueled by the high costs of incarceration, a backlash developed against long prison sentences for nonviolent offenders. As public opinion began to change, more legislators were able to support alternative sentencing without fear of being labeled "soft on crime." Plea bargaining is relates to sentencing in the way that it does save the government and state if we avoid going to trial and can still reasonably punish the criminals. I am for the most part in agreement with plea bargains except in the cases involving heinous crimes against children and capital murder of course. Plea bargains are also usually the best bet for the criminal. The only problem is when the plea bargain is to lenient and the offender is available to re offend and hurts someone else because they got off on a lenient plea.