This will be a fifteen-day unit. Activities will include the following:
DAY 1
Finding out what students already know about plea-bargaining is one of the best ways to introduce the unit. Certain basic terms will be discussed, questions will be posed, and the structure of the unit outlined. Rosett and Cressey’s
Justice by Consent
will be assigned.
DAY 2
A discussion of
Justice by Consent
will help students understand both plea-bargaining and its role in the investigative process. Students will be prepared for a visit to Superior Court. They will be asked to write down any questions raised by their observations.
DAY 3
Students will watch actual plea-bargaining take place in Superior Court. If your class is large, advance arrangements will have to be made.
DAY 4
Carefully discuss the visit to Superior Court. Prepare students for the following day’s visit to the Yale library, Superior Court, and the States’ Attorney’s office.
DAY 5
At the Court and the States’ Attorney’s office, have some students investigate records while others interview officials including a judge, if possible. Again advance preparations must be made.
Then take the class to the Yale library. Use the microfilms of The New Haven
Register
to find out more about the development of plea-bargaining in New Haven.
DAY 6
After interpreting and discussing the data you have collected, you will have covered questions one, two and four posed at the beginning of this unit. Assign chapter 5 in
Crime Without Punishment
DAY 7
Chapter 5 in
Crime Without Punishment
is titled “The Disposition of Criminal Cases in the United States Historically.” Use it to discuss factors leading to the increase in pleabargaining in the United States. A handout containing a representative quote from
Conscience and Convenience
would also be useful here. Assign chapters 3 and 4 in
Crime Without Punishment
.
DAY 8
Interpreting Jones’ tables, particularly those provided in this unit, will enable students to answer the questions “How prevalent is plea-bargaining? Is plea-bargaining really the biggest problem of criminal justice administration?” In addition, prepare questions for tomorrow’s speaker(s).
DAY 9
This is an ideal time to have a panel consisting of a defense lawyer, an assistant states’ attorney and/or a police department official. Again this must be planned well in advance.
DAYS 10-14
This activity is the culmination of the unit. It involves the use of one of the best commercially-available filmstrips Warren Schloat’s
The Justice Game
(available from Lee High School History Department). The filmstrip is a four part depiction of the arrest and subsequent plea-bargain of a young man named Paul Martin.
The Justice Game
can be used to compare the results of plea-bargaining with the results of a criminal trial. The first day you should show Parts 1 and 2 of the filmstrip, which introduce the case and the evidence against Martin. On the second day you should assign parts for the trial (prosecutor, public defender, defendant, witnesses, bailiff/clerk and at least six jurors). You should also verse students in trial procedure—see part VII of this unit. The trial will take the next two days. The final day you should show Part 3 of The Justice Game and compare the results of your trial with Martin’s actual plea-bargain. Assign for reading “Reforming the Criminal Justice System” a symposium in
Current History
(July, 1976).
DAY 15
Conclude the unit be discussing and evaluating proposals to reform the criminal justice system. You may want to show part 4 of
The Justice Game
, which is a good discussion on plea-bargaining by a judge and two lawyers.
