The vast majority of those incarcerated in America have taken plea deals. The only source I could find from a government agency is a 1984 report from the BJS bu

The vast majority of those incarcerated in America have taken plea deals. The only source I could find from a government agency is a 1984 report from the BJS but it's fairly staggering - median ratio of 11 guilty pleas for every trial[1]. More recent nongovernmental sources paint a very similar picture [2][3] So whatever your feeling about the standard of proof in a criminal trial, the vast majority of those incarcerated never actually went through one. [1] https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=3498 https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=3498 [2] https://www.innocenceproject.org/guilty-pleas-on-the-rise-criminal-trials-on-the-decline/ https://www.innocenceproject.org/guilty-pleas-on-the-rise-cr... [3] https://www.themarshallproject.org/2014/12/26/plea-bargaining-and-the-innocent https://www.themarshallproject.org/2014/12/26/plea-bargainin...