[CogitoCogito]

If plea deals were not allowed and cases had to go to trial (with adequate support for public defenders), we (as a society) would find satisfactory answers to those questions. It doesn't mean it would be easy, but if the pressure were there, we'd find a solution. Fewer cases would be heard, fewer people would be jailed, and a truer justice would be served.

Plea bargains allow the justice system to effectively ignore all those costs and instead push them onto a non-representative subset of society.