For the majority of defendants, then, the plea bargaining process is the justice system.

FORBES: Aaron Swartz and the Corrupt Practice of Plea Bargaining

The new length of corporate-fraud sentences may also be influencing in troubling ways one of the most controversial elements of America's justice system: plea bargaining.

ECONOMIST: Corporate crime

Plea bargaining is woven into the fabric of our criminal justice system.

FORBES: Aaron Swartz' Suicide Forces Hard Questions About The Criminal Justice System

And thanks to the legal fiction that plea bargaining is a voluntary negotiation between the prosecutor and defendant, our justice system effectively gives people dramatically longer sentences for exercising the right to have a trial at all.

FORBES: Aaron Swartz and the Corrupt Practice of Plea Bargaining