{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,17]],"date-time":"2025-06-17T15:10:04Z","timestamp":1750173004901,"version":"3.41.0"},"reference-count":94,"publisher":"Cambridge University Press (CUP)","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,21]],"date-time":"2025-04-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1745193600000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":110,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J. Law. Med. Ethics"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:p>The discipline of public health has begun to recognize the structural inequities of the carceral system as drivers of poor individual and population health. The number of people incarcerated and the length of their incarceration determine the scope and gravity of their exposure to these individual and public health effects. Plea bargains all but guarantee a period of incarceration, often for many years, because prosecutors have significant bargaining power against defendants who often do not fully understand their rights or the likelihood of receiving the sentences that prosecutors would be seeking in trial. I propose and analyze several pathways through which to eliminate or severely restrict the practice of plea bargaining to minimize the health effects associated with incarceration. I conclude that state legislation would be most feasible and effective at eliminating plea bargains but, without concurrent interventions addressing mandatory minima and\/or bail, would not fundamentally address the primary concerns of sentence length and overcrowding.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1017\/jme.2025.58","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,21]],"date-time":"2025-04-21T06:39:31Z","timestamp":1745217571000},"page":"188-196","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Plea Bargains as Drivers of Incarceration-Related Health Outcomes"],"prefix":"10.1017","volume":"53","author":[{"given":"Riley","family":"Smith","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"56","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"S1073110525000580_r31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"79","DOI":"10.1007\/s10979-009-9194-8","article-title":"Self-Reported False Confessions and False Guilty Pleas Among Offenders with Mental Illness","volume":"34","author":"Redlich","year":"2010","journal-title":"Law and Human Behavior"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r49","unstructured":"49. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(b) for the factors that the court must consider before accepting a guilty plea."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r60","unstructured":"60. These rules also apply on appeal. Fed. R. Crim. P. 1(a)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r74","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"74. McCannon, B. C. , \u201cAlaska\u2019s Plea Bargaining Ban\u201d (West Virginia University, January 7, 2021), https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2139\/ssrn.3761990.","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.3761990"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r83","unstructured":"83. See Prison Policy Initiative, supra note 82."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r21","first-page":"12","volume-title":"Advances in Psychology and Law","author":"Henderson","year":"2019"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r16","first-page":"1187","article-title":"Criminalizing Race: Racial Disparities in Plea Bargaining","volume":"59","author":"Berdejo","year":"2018","journal-title":"Boston College Law Review"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r48","unstructured":"48. The Court named the following \u201cobvious advantages\u201d: \u201chis exposure is reduced, the correctional processes can begin immediately, and the practical burdens of a trial are eliminated.\u201d 397 US 742 (1970)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r53","unstructured":"53. This recently occurred when determining whether the FDA properly approved mifepristone, with two judges making opposing rulings on the same day. L. Sobel and A. Salganicoff, \u201cQ & A: Implications of Two Conflicting Federal Court Rulings on the Availability of Medication Abortion and the FDA\u2019s Authority to Regulate Drugs,\u201d Kaiser Family Foundation, April 8, 2023, https:\/\/www.kff.org\/policy-watch\/q-a-implications-of-two-conflicting-federal-court-rulings-on-the-availability-of-medication-abortion-and-the-fdas-authority-to-regulate-drugs\/ (last visited January 20, 2025)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r72","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1215\/03616878-3766737"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r40","first-page":"27","article-title":"A Re-evaluation of Alaska\u2019s Plea Bargaining Ban","volume":"8","author":"Carns","year":"1991","journal-title":"Alaska Law Review"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r61","unstructured":"61. See Prison Policy Initiative, supra note 2."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r76","unstructured":"76. As of this writing, 43 elect their Attorneys General. \u201cAttorney General (State Executive Office),\u201d Ballotpedia, https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Attorney_General_(state_executive_office), (last visited January 20, 2025); As of this writing, 23 states elect some or all of their District Attorneys. C. Hessick, National Study of Prosecutor Elections (The Prosecutors and Politics Project, UNC School of Law, February 2020), https:\/\/law.unc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/National-Study-Prosecutor-Elections-2020.pdf."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r64","unstructured":"64. Mince-Didier, A. , \u201cState Crimes vs. Federal Crimes,\u201d NOLO, https:\/\/www.criminaldefenselawyer.com\/resources\/state-crimes-vs-federal-crimes.htm (last visited December 23, 2024)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r62","unstructured":"62. Federal Prosecution Levels Remain at Historic Highs (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University, 2018), https:\/\/trac.syr.edu\/tracreports\/crim\/540\/ [hereinafter cited as TRAC Report]."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r42","unstructured":"42. For example, the Wisconsin Supreme Court stated in 1877 that they were \u201chardly, if at all, distinguishable in principle from a direct sale of justice.\u201d See Walsh, supra note 39."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r17","first-page":"93","article-title":"Unshackling Plea Bargaining from Racial Bias","volume":"111","author":"Greenberg","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journal of Criminal Law and. Criminology"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r46","unstructured":"46. Constitutionally protected rights that are typically waived during plea negotiations are the right to protect oneself against self-incrimination, right to a fair trial and a jury trial, right to a speedy and public trial, and the right to confront witnesses. US Const. amend. V and US Const. amend. VI."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r93","article-title":"Abolition Through the Ages: Reform Versus Transformation, Then and Now","author":"Kolhatkar","year":"2021","journal-title":"Yes! Media"},{"volume-title":"When is a Mandatory Minimum Sentence Not Mandatory Under the First Step Act?","year":"2023","author":"Sidhu","key":"S1073110525000580_r80"},{"volume-title":"An Unjust Burden: The Disparate Treatment of Black Americans in the Criminal Justice System","year":"2018","author":"Hinton","key":"S1073110525000580_r11"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r20","unstructured":"20. Strickland v. Washington, 466 US 668 (1984)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r54","unstructured":"54. Of Latin origin, stare decisis directly translates to \u201cto stand by things decided\u201d. (Stare Decisis, n.d.)"},{"volume-title":"The Case for Cash Bail Reform","year":"2023","author":"Preston","key":"S1073110525000580_r86"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r45","unstructured":"45. Most recently, the Supreme Court found in Lafler v. Cooper and Missouri v. Frye that the right to effective counsel granted by the Sixth Amendment extends to counsel assistance during plea negotiations. 132 S. Ct. 1376 (2012) and 132 S. Ct. 1399 (2012)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r73","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"367","DOI":"10.2307\/3053259","article-title":"Alaska\u2019s Ban on Plea Bargaining","volume":"13","author":"Rubinstein","year":"1979","journal-title":"Law and Society Review"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r68","unstructured":"68. See Prison Policy Initiative, supra note 2."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r92","unstructured":"92. See Shipan, supra note 65."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r82","unstructured":"82. See Prison Policy Initiative, \u201cDetaining the Poor: How Money Bail Perpetuates an Endless Cycle of Poverty and Jail Time,\u201d press release, May 10, 2016, https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/incomejails.html."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r88","unstructured":"88. It\u2019s Time for the US to Decriminalize Drug Use and Possession (Drug Policy Alliance, July 2017), https:\/\/legislature.vermont.gov\/Documents\/2018\/WorkGroups\/House%20Judiciary\/Bills\/H.797\/H.797~David%20Mickenberg~Report%20Referenced%20in%20Testimony%20-%20BandW~4-4-2018.pdf."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r43","unstructured":"43. Fed. R. Crim. P. 11."},{"volume-title":"Controlling Felony Plea Bargaining in California - the Impact of the \u2018Victims\u2019 Bill of Rights\u2019 - Paper 232","year":"1986","author":"McCoy","key":"S1073110525000580_r71"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r41","unstructured":"41. See Carns, supra note 40 at 41\u201346; See Gazal, supra note 37 at 25\u201330."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r51","unstructured":"51. Upon the decision\u2019s release."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r59","unstructured":"59. Examples of legislation that changed Rule 11 of Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure include the Victim and Witness Protection Act of 1982 (Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(c)(1)) and the Sentencing Reform Act (Fed. R. Crim. P. 11 (b)(1)(M))."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r77","first-page":"1415","article-title":"Imagining the Progressive Prosecutor","volume":"105","author":"Levin","year":"2021","journal-title":"Minnesota Law Review"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r4","unstructured":"4. Researchers at Prison Policy Initiative found that average annual hygiene expenditures in Illinois prisons come to $80\/person, or \u201calmost half their annual wages.\u201d See Prison Policy Initiative, \u201cThe Company Store: A Deeper Look at Prison Commissaries,\u201d press release, May 2018, https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/commissary.html (last visited January 20, 2025)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r23","unstructured":"23. Knight, A. , \u201cRacial Implicit Bias in the Plea Bargaining Process\u201d, Applied Psychology Opus, https:\/\/wp.nyu.edu\/steinhardt-appsych_opus\/racial-implicit-bias\/ (last visited December 23, 2024); See Greenberg, supra note 18 at 119\u2013130; See Berdejo, supra note 16 at 1213\u20131240."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r37","unstructured":"37. Gazal, O. , \u201cPartial Ban on Plea Bargains,\u201d (Working Paper 05\u2013008, University of Michigan Law School, 2005): 72\u201373, https:\/\/repository.law.umich.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=law_econ_archive."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r14","unstructured":"14. Johnson, C. , \u201cThe Vast Majority of Criminal Cases End in Plea Bargains, a New Report Finds,\u201d National Public Radio, February 22, 2023, https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2023\/02\/22\/1158356619\/plea-bargains-criminal-cases-justice (last visited December 23, 2024)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r15","unstructured":"15. Santobello v. New York, 404 US 257 (1971)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0084255900027273"},{"volume-title":"Far From Home: Reducing Barriers to Subsidized Housing for People with Criminal Records in Massachusetts","year":"2022","author":"Aruleba","key":"S1073110525000580_r7"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r9","unstructured":"9. See Prison Policy Initiative, supra note 2."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/josi.12355"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r69","unstructured":"69. See Shipan, supra note 65."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r75","first-page":"987","article-title":"Is a Ban on Plea Bargaining an Ethical Abuse of Discretion? A Bronx County, New York Case Study","volume":"64","author":"Acevedo","year":"1995","journal-title":"Fordham Law Review"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r33","unstructured":"33. See Henderson supra note 21 at 22\u201324; See Henderson supra note 32."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r84","unstructured":"84. For example, an analysis of the plea-bargaining ban in Bronx County, NY, found that the average pre-trial detention stay was 40 days longer in the Bronx than other boroughs, that pending cases increased over 24%, and that defendants incarcerated for longer than a year increased by 47%. See Acevedo, supra note 75 at 998."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r94","unstructured":"94. \u201cStrict Scrutiny,\u201d Legal Information Institute, https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/strict_scrutiny (last visited January 20, 2025)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1037\/lhb0000065"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r34","unstructured":"34. See Henderson supra note 21 at 17\u201319."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r36","unstructured":"36. See Henderson supra note 32."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r38","unstructured":"38. Though only 0.4% of federal defendants were acquitted overall, only 2.3% of all cases went to trial. J. Gramlich, \u201cFewer Than 1% of Federal Criminal Defendants were Acquitted in 2022,\u201d Pew Research Center, June 14, 2023, https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/shortreads\/2023\/06\/14\/fewer-than-1-of-defendants-in-federal-criminal-cases-were-acquitted-in-2022\/ (last visited December 23, 2024)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r19","unstructured":"19. See Greenberg, supra note 17 at 121\u2013122."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r29","unstructured":"29. See Berdejo, supra note 16 at 1237\u20131239."},{"volume-title":"Core Practices to Change the Narrative on Violence","year":"2024","author":"Sered","key":"S1073110525000580_r91"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r27","unstructured":"27. See Gross, supra note 26; See Berdejo, supra note 16 at 1214\u20131220."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r57","unstructured":"57. According to the Administrative Office of the US Courts, \u201cAny change to the federal rules must be designed to promote simplicity in procedure, fairness in administration, the just determination of litigation, and the elimination of unjustifiable expense and delay.\u201d \u201cPending Rules and Forms Amendments,\u201d United States Courts, https:\/\/www.uscourts.gov\/forms-rules\/pending-rules-and-forms-amendments (last visited January 20, 2025); See Lampe, supra note 56."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r13","unstructured":"13. See Kovera, supra note 11."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r3","unstructured":"3. Estelle v. Gamble recognized the right to medical treatment in confinement, although the standards of care required are very limited. Estelle v. Gamble, 429 US 97, 103 (1976)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r5","unstructured":"5. Incarcerated People Speak Out About Medical Neglect in Massachusetts Prisons (Deeper Than Water, September 15, 2022), https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1cxHKSDefTlsL1O74Gn-2fzaZ4P1ojhWu\/view (last visited January 20, 2025)."},{"volume-title":"Congress, the Judiciary, and Civil and Criminal Procedure","year":"2020","author":"Lampe","key":"S1073110525000580_r56"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r66","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"273","DOI":"10.1111\/lsq.12076","article-title":"The Politics of Obstruction: Republican Holds in the US Senate","volume":"40","author":"Howard","year":"2015","journal-title":"Legislative Studies Quarterly"},{"volume-title":"Diversion Programs, Explained","year":"2022","author":"Johnson","key":"S1073110525000580_r90"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r22","unstructured":"22. See Henderson and Levett, supra note 21 at 16\u201324; See Greenberg, supra note 18 at 117; See Berdejo, supra note 17 at 1233\u20131237."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s11524-019-00382-0"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r24","unstructured":"24. See Berdejo, supra note 16 at 1220\u20131224."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r81","unstructured":"81. Three strikes laws impose harsher sentences on individuals who have been convicted previously of violent offenses. The argument is that a history of violent offenses makes someone inherently dangerous to society and therefore worthy of harsher punishment, regardless of the offense that counts for the \u201cthird strike\u201d. J. Clark, J. Austin and D. Alan Henry, \u201cThree Strikes and You\u2019re Out\u201d: A Review of State Legislation (National Institute of Justice, September 1997), https:\/\/www.ojp.gov\/pdffiles\/165369.pdf."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r89","article-title":"Supreme Court has \u2018Greenlighted the Criminalization of Homelessness\u2019, Berkeley Experts Say","author":"Pohl","year":"2024","journal-title":"UC Berkeley News"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r35","unstructured":"35. See Henderson supra note 21 at 17\u201319."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r63","unstructured":"63. See TRAC Report, supra note 62."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"72","DOI":"10.1002\/cbm.2043","article-title":"Multiple Traumatic Experiences, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Offending Behaviour in Female Prisoners","volume":"28","author":"Karatzias","year":"2018","journal-title":"Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r18","unstructured":"18. See Berdejo, supra note 16 at 1197\u20131198; see Greenberg, supra note 17, at 122."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r52","unstructured":"52. As an example, initially when the Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama, 567 US 460 (2012), that it was unconstitutional for states to mandate life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) for juvenile offenders, it did not apply retroactively. Four years later, Montgomery v. Louisiana, 577 US 190 (2016) clarified that Miller applied retroactively, granting numerous incarcerated individuals the opportunity to pursue parole and, in many cases, be released. Diatchenko v. Dist. Attorney for Suffolk District 466 Mass. 655 (Mass. 2013)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r25","unstructured":"25. See Knight, supra note 23."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r65","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"788","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1540-6210.2012.02610.x","article-title":"Policy Diffusion: Seven Lessons for Scholars and Practitioners","volume":"72","author":"Shipan","year":"2012","journal-title":"Public Administration Review"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r79","unstructured":"79. Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(b)(3)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r85","unstructured":"85. As of writing, an estimated 43% of all people held in pretrial detention are Black. Sawyer, W. , \u201cHow Race Impacts who is Detained Pretrial\u201d, Prison Policy Initiative, https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/2019\/10\/09\/pretrial_race\/ (last visited January 20, 2025)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r67","first-page":"173","volume-title":"Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies Second Edition","author":"Kingdon","year":"1995"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r1","unstructured":"1. Incarceration, or state-sanctioned confinement, is practiced globally, with different legal philosophies, procedures, and customs. This paper will focus on the carceral system in the United States."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r26","unstructured":"26. Gross, S. , et al., Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States (National Registry of Exonerations, September 23, 2022), https:\/\/www.law.umich.edu\/special\/exoneration\/Documents\/Race%20Report%20Preview.pdf."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r44","article-title":"Plea Deals: An Unconstitutional Bandaid for our Overburdened Justice System","author":"Cantrell","year":"2022","journal-title":"Columbia Undergraduate Law Review"},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r78","unstructured":"78. See Carnes, supra note 40; See McCannon, supra note 74."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r58","unstructured":"58. See Lampe, supra note 56."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r2","unstructured":"2. See Prison Policy Initiative, \u201cMass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2024,\u201d press release, March 14, 2024, https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/pie2024.html (last visited January 20, 2025)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r50","unstructured":"50. The Innocence Project is one of several advocacy organizations that has reported on many of these factors. \u201cThe Issues,\u201d The Innocence Project, https:\/\/innocenceproject.org\/the-issues\/ (last visited December 23, 2024)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r55","unstructured":"55. Constitution Annotated, \u201cAmdt14.S1.5.5.4 Plea Bargaining in Pre-Trial Process,\u201d Congress.gov, https:\/\/constitution.congress.gov\/browse\/essay\/amdt14-S1-5-5-4\/ALDE_00013762\/ (last visited January 20, 2025)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r70","unstructured":"70. See Kingdon, supra note 67 at 91\u2013115; See Shipan, supra note 65."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r87","unstructured":"87. See Greenberg, supra note 18 at 106\u2013114."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r39","unstructured":"39. Exoneration is the process of reversing a guilty plea or finding. Walsh, D. , \u201cOn Plea Bargaining, the Daily Bread of American Criminal Courts,\u201d The Atlantic, May 2, 2017, https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2017\/05\/plea-bargaining-courts-prosecutors\/524112\/ (last visited January 20, 2025)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r47","unstructured":"47. Brady v. United States, 397 US 742 (1970)."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r28","unstructured":"28. See Berdejo, supra note 16 at 1237\u20131239."},{"key":"S1073110525000580_r12","unstructured":"12. \u201cDiseases Disproportionately Affecting Minorities,\u201d National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20250202100820\/https:\/\/www.niaid.nih.gov\/research\/diseases-disproportionately-affecting-minorities (last visited January 20, 2025, page no longer live)."}],"container-title":["Journal of Law, Medicine &amp; Ethics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/services\/aop-cambridge-core\/content\/view\/S1073110525000580","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,17]],"date-time":"2025-06-17T14:45:26Z","timestamp":1750171526000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/product\/identifier\/S1073110525000580\/type\/journal_article"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025]]},"references-count":94,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025]]}},"alternative-id":["S1073110525000580"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/jme.2025.58","relation":{},"ISSN":["1073-1105","1748-720X"],"issn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"1073-1105"},{"type":"electronic","value":"1748-720X"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025]]}}}