Not from my experience. In the US I personally know a couple of public defenders, and while their case loads are big, the reason they plead guilty so much is be

Not from my experience. In the US I personally know a couple of public defenders, and while their case loads are big, the reason they plead guilty so much is because that's the game that the prosecutors play. The prosecutors want a slam dunk, but a trial may find the defendant not guilty. So the prosecutor trades certainty for reduced sentences. If you're lucky, you can trade down to a misdemeanor to avoid felony charges, in which case pleading guilty is a no brainer since felonies take away a lot of liberties. As a side note, I've been told that public defenders will actually tend to get better deals from prosecutors than private counsel because they have to work together so much that they tend to know when the prosecutor will bend. Also, I do not condone plea bargaining. I think it generally distorts justice in ways that are very corrupt, and create very mis-aligned incentives.