Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

code_archeologist t1_j8nbp2z wrote

Reply to comment by Merc931 in Lamar Johnson freed 28 years after wrongful murder conviction by CommanderMcBragg

Much like in the police, the bad apples in the municipal prosecutors office weed out the junior lawyers who want to seek justice... until you have nothing but teams of jaded "factory workers" trying to churn out as many guilty pleas in a day as they can get and punishing anybody who attempts to prove their own innocence.

50

Viper_JB t1_j8nj2m9 wrote

>trying to churn out as many guilty pleas in a day as they can get

Very disconcerting given the amount of private jails and prisons in the country. Guess there's a reason US has the largest amount of their population serving time.

16

Palanawt t1_j8nofr7 wrote

Over 95% of prisoners in the US plead guilty. These prosecutors will trump up the charges so you're facing hundreds of years and then offer you a plea deal for like 5yrs. The public defender that has a dozen other cases to deal with that morning and doesn't know you from Adam is always gonna push you to take that deal. We have LOTS of innocent people in prison. And like others have said, it's a feature, not a bug.

17

Taysir385 t1_j8o5n1w wrote

> These prosecutors will trump up the charges so you're facing hundreds of years and then offer you a plea deal for like 5yrs.

Friend of mine was once facing eight life sentences without parole. Accepted a plea bargain for time served. Which was admittedly like six months because he couldn't afford the million dollar bail, but that's not all that much better.

9

Palanawt t1_j8ocear wrote

Jeez that's disgusting. We fail so hard at being decent humans in this country.

5

Viper_JB t1_j8nqitg wrote

It's incredibly fucked up, guess the result of some many politicians promising to be though on crime. If you win a case like this does the state cover your legal costs?

8

needabiggerhammer t1_j8o370c wrote

Nope. You are out the money.

And until last year your options to sue were limited (SCOTUS fixed that a bit).

4

KeepAwaySynonym t1_j8noqbj wrote

While one prison being private is too many....

There is a total of 158 total private prisons holding single digit percentage of the US prison population... thats out of a total of 1,566 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 2,850 county jails and 1,510 juvenile correctional facilities.

Private prison numbers from: https://study.com/learn/lesson/how-many-private-prisons-are-in-the-us.html

Total number here:

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html

The discussions around private prisons makes it seem like it's a significant chunk... while one is too many, it's not enough.

Remember to contact your elected reps to end state contracting to private prisons!

9