The system doesn't have enough capacity to deal with the frivolous appeals and habeas corpus petitions? Gee, that's too bad.
If only there was something the justice system could do to reduce the number of people going into this pipeline!
Well, I'll let you go, Justice System -- I see you found a dude with a few grams of acid paper, which I think we can all agree makes him basically El Chapo.
The justice system can and does handle all those appeals and habeas petitions. But there is a difference between giving people a chance to prove their innocence, and making it easier for them to try and have prosecutors imprisoned for misconduct.
And reducing the number of cases would not change the calculus. If you had fewer convicts you'd need fewer prosecutors, but the ratios for each prosecutor would not change. The basic problem is that if you make it easier for 1 person to hold the prosecutor accountable for actual misconduct, you make it easier for 20-30 validly convicted people to harass prosecutors who did nothing wrong.
Fewer convicts == fewer prosecutors is irrelevant. Why?
Because the number of prosecutors isn't the limiting factor in whether or not we can safely do a better job of punishing bad prosecutors!
As you yourself stated, it's the legal apparatus of the justice system. Punishing bad prosecutors without allowing abuse and harassment would take a lot of resources, yes?
I was just pointing out that, with a smaller prison population, it wouldn't be necessary to turn judges out into the streets. Freed-up legal resources could be used to thoughtfully tackle the very real problems in the justice system.
> As you yourself stated, it's the legal apparatus of the justice system. Punishing bad prosecutors without allowing abuse and harassment would take a lot of resources, yes?
You'd be subjecting individual prosecutors to a deluge of frivolous lawsuits, each carrying the risk of criminal prosecution. The issue isn't whether the system has the capacity to process those lawsuits, it's whether prosecutors could still do their jobs while dealing with them.
You provided that solution -- "lawsuits with a risk of criminal prosecution."
That's your invention, so feel free to knock it down.
I'm simply observing a truth, and was in the original comment: the enormous legal resources being wasted dealing with unnecessarily incarcerated people would be useful in dealing with prosecutorial misconduct.
I won't claim it's a profound or useful insight. :)
And the justice system could stand to spend more on limiting the amount of injustice it causes, an amount which the general population is starting to realize is not trivial.
(Also, I notice that you've amended your original comment to be a bit more sympathetic).
If only there was something the justice system could do to reduce the number of people going into this pipeline!
Well, I'll let you go, Justice System -- I see you found a dude with a few grams of acid paper, which I think we can all agree makes him basically El Chapo.