One of the problems not mentioned is mandatory sentencing guidelines that were passed as part of a "get tough on crime" laws of the 80s and 90s in the US. Thes

One of the problems not mentioned is mandatory sentencing guidelines that were passed as part of a "get tough on crime" laws of the 80s and 90s in the US. These laws do a lot to reduce the discretion in sentencing available to judges. My mom, who was a judge told me a lot about this. Say you are young and you do something very stupid. You get high and you go into a store with a friend who is also high and threatens the clerk with a knife to steal something. Maybe you don't do anything more than run away with your friend after he steals something. After you are arrested a prosecutor can probably charge you with half a dozen crimes, all associated with the event. The prosecutor is incentivized to charge you with a bunch of stuff to get you to plead guilty instead of going to trial which is very expensive. Maybe the police picked you up and you are the wrong person. Maybe you are young and you think you shouldn't go to prison because someone you barely know did something stupid and all you did was run away when they ran away. If you ask for your day in court you are going to face all these charges and probably the prosecution will win. DAs are usually better than defense attorneys unless you can afford a very good one. So you lose. A judge might look at your past behavior. Decide you are not a really dangerous person and think, if this person were locked up for a year or two they would learn their lesson and be productive members of society. But with many charges and mandatory sentencing, there is nothing to do but lock up the person for a really long time. So long that their productive life is ruined. Mandatory sentencing also helps weaponize charges in the plea bargaining process because it prevents a judge from applying their judgement to make the sentence fit the crime. So take a plea bargain of a couple years for an auto theft or lose in court and face ten years or more with a bunch of other charges tacked on.