Restorative interventions needed for 97% cases where defendants plead guilt

While the book does not mention restorative justice, it provides rationale for restorative interventions at the sentencing stage of cases, and for corrections.

The book stunningly points out the fact that 97% of all convicted people pled guilt. The authors point out that: “only 3 percent of all criminal cases were actually resolved through trials in which judges or juries rendered verdicts of guilt or innocence. Of the small proportion of cases that did go to trial, approximately one-third resulted in acquittals. Thus, although acquittals represented only a tiny fraction of criminal dispositions. They represented a much larger proportion of those rare cases that did go to trial.”

Scary too is the policy justification for underfunding public defenders (compared to how prosecutors funded): “The belief that the vast majority of the acquitted really are guilty rests on the assumption that neither the police nor the prosecutors will pursue criminal charges against innocent people. The authors go on to quote legal scholar and judge Richard Posner who says “A bare-bones system for defense of indigent criminal defendants may be optimal.”

The book also reveals startling details about the overall attitudes of judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys, who are all far more likely to have biased views concerning race than jurors.

Read the whole article.