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![handle is hein.journals/jclconl110 and id is 1 raw text is: THE JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINOLOGY Vol. 110 Online
Copyright © 2020 by Thea Johnson
CRISIS AND COERCIVE PLEAS
THEA JOHNSON*
INTRODUCTION................................................................................ 1
ITHE RISK FACTORS FOR COERCIVE PLEAS DURING AND
A FTER C O V ID -19 ............................................................... 3
A. The Even Greater Coercive Power of a Prison or Jail
Sentence During a Pandem ic ........................................... 3
1. Pretrial Detention and Incarceratory Sentence as
Potential Death Sentence........................................... 3
2 . W aiv ers ..................................................................... . 5
B. The Difficulty of Holding or Complete Lack of Jury Trials .7
1. N o Jury T rials ............................................................ 7
2. N o Speedy Trial Clock............................................. 11
C. Issues with Access to Counsel......................................... 12
II. POSSIBLE SOLUTION S .......................................................... 14
A . V irtual Jury Trials .......................................................... 15
B. Strengthening the Role of the Judge in Plea Bargaining ..... 18
III. SILVER LININGS OF THE CRISIS ...................................... 20
CONCLUSION................................................................................... 21
INTRODUCTION
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, activists and advocates have
rightly focused their attention on the immediate need to decrease the number
of people in jails and prisons.' Jails and prisons have been ravaged by the
* Associate Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School. I would like to thank participants in
the NIU Criminal Law Works-in-Progress workshop, Geoffrey Bickford, Russell Covey,
Lucian Dervan, Sarah Dobson, Margaret Maffai, Kristina McKenna, Dale Rappaneau, Cheryl
Saniuk-Heinig, and Jenia Iontcheva Turner.
1 Emily Widra & Peter Wagner, Jails and Prisons Have Reduced Their Populations in
the Face of the Pandemic, but not Enough to Save Lives, PRISON POL'Y INITIATIVE (Aug. 5,
2020), https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/08/05/jails-vs-prisons-update-2/ [https://per
ma.cc/7TBK-2X8D].
1](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jclconl110&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)