After reading my own comment, I feel like I should clarify a few things.  First, I don't think that judges and prosecutors are bad people; I think they are for the most part good people who work in a bad system that leaves itself open to abuses.  One such example is the amount of plea bargains that prosecutors offer to defendants.  The system is so clogged up that plea bargains seem to be a necessity if for no other reason than pragmatics.  However, the idea here is that when a prosecutor offers a plea, the alternative is that if the defendant rejects the offer and goes to trial, the punishment -- if found guilty -- will be more severe than if the defendant had accepted the plea bargain.  While that may be of value to motivate people to accept a plea bargain, it is really a form of judicial bullying since a person's level of punishment should in no way be reflected by whether or not they choose to go to trial.