It was certainly a disturbing case, but let's review the point we are discussing (as raised by the parent): whether the high incarceration rates in the US are

It was certainly a disturbing case, but let's review the point we are discussing (as raised by the parent): whether the high incarceration rates in the US are in part the result of lawyers systematically profiting from the criminal justice system. Are you really making the argument that lawyers all across the US are systematically making deals such as the ones that took place in Luzerne County, therby leading to high incaceration rates? Do we have evidence to lead us to believe that the kind of deals found in Luzerne County are widespread? Honestly, I find the suggestion preposterous. The criminal justice system in the US is in dire need of reform and it's infuriating that discussions of said reform are often distracted by these kinds of baseless conspiracy theories. If you ask me, the US's world leading incarceration rates probably have much more to do with the outsized sentence lengths, drastically underfunded public defense funds, mandatory sentencing requirements, lack of due prosecutorial discretion, overcharging and abuse of plea bargains, and insane drug legislation to name a few things. Oh, but that's so complicated. It's probably just all those greedy criminal lawyers. /s