The Bronx courts handled about 4160 felony cases in one of the years Browder was jailed. Just about 4000 were plea-bargained.
One judge hired for the purpose managed to close 1000 cases. “At the start of 2013, there were nine hundred and fifty-two felony cases in the Bronx, including Browder’s, that were more than two years old. In the next twelve months, DiMango disposed of a thousand cases, some as old as five years.” (New Yorker, Oct. 6, 2014)
Kind of makes my point.
This judge closed 20 cases a week, or, presumably 4 per day on average. One every two hours. That’s not unreasonable for traffic court. For felony cases, not so much.
Without most if not all of those being plea bargained, the system would collapse. But such a system quite obviously cares little about guilt or innocence. It is, by necessity, desperately focused on productivity.