Plea bargains are pure coercion. The ability of a prosecutor to threaten you with almost arbitrarily severe punishment means that a plea bargain is a much better option than rolling the dice with a jury trial. Whether or not you committed the crime is irrelevant. You are looking at say 5 years with a plea bargain vs. either life or nothing without one, 10 years is simply the rational choice. Once you've accepted the plea bargain, by the way, you can't challenge the sentence if new evidence comes up.
What's perhaps more appalling is confessions made to police and prosecutors without an attorney present. The police and prosecutors can lie about the potential sentence, even threatening the suspect's life (we'll go death penalty!), drawing out a confession, and then be under no obligation to uphold their end of the "bargain".
The bottom line is that 95% of people in our prisons did not have a trial before a jury of their peers. Some of these people are very likely innocent, but because of the nature of plea bargains, they cannot challenge their sentences.
What's perhaps more appalling is confessions made to police and prosecutors without an attorney present. The police and prosecutors can lie about the potential sentence, even threatening the suspect's life (we'll go death penalty!), drawing out a confession, and then be under no obligation to uphold their end of the "bargain".
The bottom line is that 95% of people in our prisons did not have a trial before a jury of their peers. Some of these people are very likely innocent, but because of the nature of plea bargains, they cannot challenge their sentences.