Peirspictiochtai Ar An Saol
Zero-Based Justice
Part Eight
The Constitution of the United States guarantees Americans the right to a jury trial.
Yet, most Americans faced with criminal charges give up their Constitutional rights.
Today, various reports indicate that plea bargains are utilized to secure convictions in more than 90% of criminal cases.
A plea bargain is an arrangement where a person charged with a crime or crimes agrees to plead guilty to one or more of the crimes in exchange for the prosecutor agreeing to or agreeing to recommend a sentence that is more favorable to the defendant than the most severe consequences if the person chose to avail themselves of a trial by jury. A judge reviews the agreement between the defendant and the prosecutor. If a judge agrees with the arrangement, the plea bargain is approved. If a judge disagrees with the arrangement, the plea bargain is not approved.
The current system of justice in the United States is one based on incentives.
It may result in a just outcome.
It may result in an injust outcome.
(Please note: The wording “injust” is not considered grammatically correct. Instead, “unjust” is considered the proper spelling for the word. “Injust” is being utilized in this news column to highlight the aspects of the justice system as practiced today in the United States.)
What are the incentives of a system based on plea bargains?
Efficiency is one the key incentives.
For the prosecutor, you get a “guilty” plea from a defendant, you don’t have to interview and select jurors, you don’t have to prepare for a trial, and you don’t have to prove a person is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
For the defendant, you get a guaranteed result. It may not be a result you want, but it may be better than the result you may get through a jury trial.
For the judge, you don’t have to conduct a trial.
The result?
The prosecutor, the defense attorney, and the judge are all able to process convictions of people quicker and in greater quantities than ever possible through jury trials.
The defendant may or may not be actually guilty.
The victim or victims of the criminal act or acts may or may not get actual justice.
The actual person or persons who committed the criminal act or acts may or may not be held to account for their actions.
Think of the justice system as an assembly line in a factory.
An assembly line where the priority is to produce product efficiently.
An assembly line where the incentives for the individuals involved focus on those individuals.
Not the customers.
The boss wants the factory to be efficient.
The more efficient the factory, the more money the company earns. The more money the company earns, the higher the pay and benefits for the boss.
If everyone on the assembly line does excellent work, the company works well.
But what if a person does not do their specific job well and allows the product being produced to continue down the assembly line?
Or, what if part of a piece of equipment is not calibrated correctly and allows the product to continue down the assembly line?
The boss may notice the problem, but does not want to stop the assembly line to correct what the person is doing incorrectly or to fix the piece of equipment.
Instead, the assembly line continues to run in the factory.
The products produced are distributed to customers.
Sometime later, problems start appearing to those customers. The products produced are not functioning correctly. In fact, the products are defective.
It only became obvious to the customers when something went wrong to them – the customers.
The worker who wasn’t doing their job correctly knew of the problem.
The boss at the factory knew of the problem.
But neither had any incentive to speak up.
The worker did not want to lose their job.
The boss did not want to be responsible for less product produced due to shutting down the assembly line to fix the problem because they – the boss – would lose money and benefits – perhaps, even lose their job.
The factory could have a quality control system in place to catch the problem that neither the worker nor the boss wanted to highlight.
One of the quality control supervisors could notice a problem. They know that to correct the problem may require retraining the worker, recalibration of the equipment, shutting down the assembly line to correct the problem, retraining the boss, and recalling products already produced and already distributed.
The quality control supervisor knows that if they call attention to the problem, their actions would result in great costs to the company, and, potentially, cost them – the quality control supervisor – their job because they didn’t catch the problem when it first began.
The quality control supervisor has no incentive to speak up.
The top officials of the company that operate the factory know that there is likely a problem. Somewhere on the assembly line.
They know this because some of the products produced are not working correctly.
A few customers – just a few – have complained about the product.
The top officials decide it is more efficient to placate those customers by replacing the products that those customers purchased.
The top officials have no incentive to investigate to determine where on the assembly line the likely problem is occurring.
It is more efficient for the worker, for the boss, for the quality control supervisor, and for top officials at the company to keep the assembly line running.
For the customers, though, efficiency on the assembly line breeds problems.
The justice system in the United States today is similar to that assembly line.
The next news column in this series will continue to detail aspects of how plea bargains are utilized in the justice system. Additional news columns will continue to detail specific characteristics of justice as it is practiced today in many parts of the United States as well as ways that justice could be practiced through Zero-Based Justice.
Peirspictiochtai Ar A Saol – Gaelic – Irish – for “Perspectives On Life” is a column focused on aspects of accountability and responsibility as well as ways people look at life.
Contact Richard McDonough at
© 2026 Richard McDonough
