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> There are places in the US where the criminal justice system would break down if every defendant refused a plea deal and demanded a speedy trial

I'm actually not aware of any place in the US that routinely administers what could be considered a speedy trial. It's a shame, really, but perhaps an inevitable side-effect of the ever-increasing burden on the part of the prosecution. Pre-Warren Court, it was normal for criminal cases to take days between arrest and trial.

> Our jails are full because we have unnecessarily long sentences and a prison system that is meant to be punitive instead of rehabilitative

I make the point in a sibling comment that the US actually has lower incarceration rates compared to its peer nations, relative to their homicide rates. Our jails are full because we have a lot more crime. We can agree to disagree on the "root causes" thereof.

by betterunix222 minutes ago|

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I am not sure what "relative to the homicide rate" is supposed to prove. The homicide rate is not the same as the homicide conviction rate, or put another way, perhaps we have a lower incarceration rate relative to our homicide rate compared to other countries because we are solving a smaller fraction of homicides compared to those countries.

(Also possible, but I suspect less likely, is that our homicide rate is higher but not in proportion to the number of murderers; maybe we have a bigger problem with serial killers than other countries, and thus have fewer murderers to incarcerate relative to the homicide rate.)