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Punishment Without Trial

Why Plea Bargaining Is a Bad Deal

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Punishment Without Trial

By: Carissa Byrne Hessick
Narrated by: Christina Delaine
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When Americans think of the criminal justice system, the image that comes to mind is a trial-a standard court­room scene with a defendant, attorneys, a judge, and most important, a jury. It's a fair assumption.

But in Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining Is a Bad Deal, University of North Carolina law professor Carissa Byrne Hessick shows that the popular conception of a jury trial couldn't be further from reality. That bed­rock constitutional right has all but disappeared thanks to the unstoppable march of plea bargaining, which began to take hold during Prohibition and has skyrocketed since 1971, when it was affirmed as constitutional by the Supreme Court.

Nearly every aspect of our criminal justice system encourages defendants-whether innocent or guilty-to take a plea deal. Punishment Without Trial showcases how plea bargaining has undermined justice at every turn and across socioeconomic and racial divides. It forces the hand of lawyers, judges, and defendants, turning our legal system into a ruthlessly efficient mass incarceration machine that is dogging our jails and pun­ishing citizens. Professor Hessick makes the case against plea bargaining as she illustrates how it has damaged our justice system while presenting an innovative set of reforms for how we can fix it.

©2021 Carissa Byrne Hessick (P)2021 Tantor History & Theory Law Political Science Politics & Government Crime Criminal Law Criminal Justice Reform

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loaded with information and things I never knew i didn't know. it got me thinking differently about the cash bail system something I didn't except. it actually gave me an entirely different prospect on the criminal and civil law system than I had going into this book.

very interesting and informative

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This book and it's subject matter are critically important to understanding the major cause of mass incarceration in the US today. Prosecutor's have unchecked power to act without consequence as judge jury and executioner in over 97% of cases that pass through our criminal courts today and have a developed a culture of "win at all costs" within their offices and chains of command. The 97% is the number of criminal cases in this country that are settled WITHOUT a trial! The court system does not give most defendants a fighting chance and only 2-3 people out of every hundred have the guts to challenge the system though they are often treated as if they are mentally unstable when they do because it has become "crazy" to challenge the wheels of justice and everybody involved assumes those wheel are going roll right over you. What's sad is they are right to h have that opinion because it's based on facts. They way the system has evolved over time as is detailed in this book literally has gone in the opposite direction of it's original intent to find out the truth and dispense justice accordingly. We are not at a point where at nearly every turn citizens are being forced to sign away constitutional rights, get bullied into pleading guilty often without seeing the evidence against them or being able to consult with an attorney and then on top of all of it, lie to the court and say no threats or promises were made to get them to agree to the appeal or the court will not accept it! This happens all day every day in courts in every single state in the country and all of the parties (often accept the defendants) are fully aware of the grand deception taking place. When defendants want to exercise their right to a trial they are flat out told they will get a much more severe sentence if they exercise that right (on average 2-3 times as long as if they did not have a trial) which is absurd as this book points out! Would we punish someone for exercising any other rights? Would we routinely demand citizens sign away these rights as part of a strategy to fight for their very lives? This book as well as a few of the others i have reviewed recently will provide the kind of information every American needs to have in order to understand what our own government is acting out as our public servants! These people are supposed to be there to work for us and keep the public safe but it doesn't seem that is what their jobs are about anymore. Check out the book and decide for yourselves. It's time to wake up people!!

If I was going to make any criticism of this book it would be that there hasn't been anyone. including the author who has explored the consequences of so called "pre-trial monitoring" and how reporting to these programs is often a requirement of bail/bond and can often be more stringent and intrusive than even probation and parole. though you are still technically innocent you must report as much as 1-2 times per week during business hours which means time off of work, you are subjected to monitoring by agencies I have nicknamed "The Peelice" (because their primary function is pee testing you) for constant UA drug tests which I have personally found humiliating. The procedure in Milwaukee county requires you to pull your pants to your knees, pull your shit up to your breasts then spin in a complete circle and then hold one hand up as you take the cup with the other and then try to urinate. If that is not enough then imagine adding to that a worker who feels she needs to squat down about 3 feet in from of you and stare at your genitals as you try to go! If you refuse or can't go it is considered a failure of a UA and for any failed tests (as well as a variety of other violations of the programs rules) you are immediately dragged before your judge who must now squeeze you into an already overflowing schedule to explain yourself and your "bail jumping" to them. You cannot predict what is going to happen. Could be jail. could be a demand for more bail. could be some other punishment ordered or it could be nothing. That's just it is that you never know so you feel as though your life is hanging on by a thread every time you have to report to these people. It makes many people take plea deals in the same way being in jail pretrial does. It is often used by prosecutors as a tool to press for a plea deal because they know people with certain mental health or addiction issues of those who live in certain areas where stop and frisks are used regularly that there is good chance someone with these circumstances will make a mistake and they can then threaten felony bail jumping charges get added on which they can easily get a conviction on if the defendant even the innocent do not agree to the plea they are being offered. It's a common everyday occurrence. These pretrial monitoring programs often treat the innocent worse than a PO does someone who has plead guilty, They shouldn't be allowed to demand so much from people who have to be presumed innocent! Check stubs, bank statements, medical information including any and all RX medication to name a few things all becomes part of your criminal case information! YOUR ONLY ALTERNATIVE IS JAIL! you cannot refuse these programs if you want to get out. So I would like the author or future authors to please investigate pretrial monitoring because as I have pointed out here it's a serious part of the problem!

Near perfect look at a broken even corrupt system!

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This book does an excellent job of explaining why plea bargaining has become so pervasive and why it is so pernicious - however, for practitioners in the criminal legal system, many of those reasons will already be clear. I also found the solutions section to leave me wanting a little more, with some of the explanations for why the author believes these reforms would help feeling like they could have used a more detailed explanation. If you’re interested in the problem of plea bargaining and don’t have professional experience with it, this is the book for you.

Good Introduction

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This book outlines both the problems and best solutions to fixing our justice system. Implementing sone of these solutions will give our country the freedom and equality our country has always promised.

A must read

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A well researched look at crime and punishment and the distortions caused by plea bargaining in the United States. Well narrated. Important information we should know as informed citizens.

Important to know about our justice system

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I was assigned to read this for a class and really TRIED to go into it with an open mind, but she started out with a story about how unreasonable to her it seemed that a defendant would plead guilty and serve 10 years for a murder he didn’t do. I interned at an innocence project and a simple Google search of their work would show that this is a reality. She ends the book talking about this same defendant and that she went to go ask him if he regretted it- fully expecting him to say yes. He did not and she asked him 3 times because she wanted the perfect quote to encapsulate her book. One of these times being after he told her that he didn’t want to dwell on the past and had come to peace with it. This cruel disregard for the realities of those brought into the criminal legal system is what you can expect from this book.
To be fair, there were several ideas that I thought were good suggestions. Bail reform and the two prosecutors she discussed towards the end of the chapter prior to the conclusion. However, the author simply could not fathom/adjust her hypothesis: trials is the constitutional right guaranteed and trials disrupt that. Even though she was unable to explain how a trial guarantees more Justice when we take into account jury biases, underfunded public defenders representing, unfair judges, etc. She recognized the ideas by progressive prosecutors dismissing and presenting fair pleas as the best idea, but just could not actually adjust the narrative in the end.
Lastly, just like not good writing in general. Her writing makes me believe she came into this with stories she wanted to share and was never able to actually figure out how they fit/affected the system so she just threw them in anyways. Example being the girl that got a deferred sentence but no one (the author included because she didn’t know what it is and didn’t. Take time to find out for defendant) explained what that meant to the defendant and it was a very good outcome but if the defendant violated the deferred sentencing she would be sentenced. I fully expected a story where the girl was negatively impacted by getting a deferred sentence but the author just shared the story…. Just because? No actual pros or cons attached to her personal narrative.
If you want to know best about what punishment without trial defendants in our country have, read The New Jim Crow, follow a public defender on Twitter, or just talk to someone that agreed to an unfair plea they took- all are more credible than this book.

Exactly what to expect from a non-practicing academic

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