Putting pressure on defendants to accept prosecutors plea deals
Public defenders are all those prosecutors and attorneys who provide “legal representation of criminal defendants who are indigent (that is, those who are poor and cannot afford a lawyer)” (Levinson, 2002). There are lots of situations, which may considerably improve the public defender system.
In case, when pressure is put on defendants to accept certain prosecutors plea deals, the public defender system has more chances to operate efficiently and effectively because of several reasons. First, psychological factor is one of the major ones, which turn out to be helpful during the cases.
Defendants may be prepared to certain questions, however, it is not that difficult to catch them and start using some personal information to accept plea deal. This is why the psychological factor should be taken into consideration.
Of course, to present more efficient public defender system, it is necessary to use the existed laws and present real life and legal examples of punishment. If this pressure does not have enough legal background, the results may be disappointing for any side.
Putting pressure on defendants helps to incriminate even bigger criminals. Lots of defendants cannot even imagine that pressure during the case may lead to unpredictable confessions.
However, prosecutors should take into consideration that this pressure may lead the defendant to accept a plea deal in exchange for real testimony. In this case, the case will get another course, and more evidences have to be gathered again.
Taking into consideration the above-mentioned outcomes of pressure on defendants, it is possible to conclude that the public defender system may be improved, if prosecutors try to use checked evidences and proper psychological evaluation of the case. This is why prosecutors have to take psychological courses to ask the question and put pressure in a proper way.
Heavy caseload per attorney
Many people admit that heavy caseload per attorney is considered to be one the areas that considerably affect the public defender system. Heavy caseload per attorney may cause because of racial issues, as people of one race want to choose an attorney of the same race in order to be sure that the attorney of the same race will do more to protect a defendant.
In this case, an attorney has not much time on each case, and the chances to present reliable and helpful information may decrease. Another reason of heavy caseload per attorney is the financial side.
Some attorney ask more money for their services, however, lots of people do not have such sum of money, this is why those attorney, who try to meet and comprehend the financial troubles of defendants may have heavy caseload.
To improve the public defender system, it is better to develop proper requirements for all attorneys in order to divide their duties and have the same amount of caseloads. When an attorney has enough time and energy to analyze the case, the results may be rather beneficial.
Some attorneys have numerous friends, who are eager to find more help and support from a particular attorney. This is why close relations to the defendant may also decrease the level of attorney’s services: people try to look for some benefits even by means of friends and other people.
To my mind, it is better to create a system that the work between the attorneys should be divided rationally: people should be prejudiced with the ideas of race inequality and gender discrimination. It is better for attorney to pass some tests to prove their devotion to the work but not to money or racial biases. In this case, the public defendant system will be much more beneficial.
Reference List
Levinson, D. (2002). Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment: Volumes I-IV. SAGE.