District Attorney's officials say it's just steadfast prosecution, noting that charges are backed up by circumstances of the crime. But even as some critics describe Kern charging policies as too harsh, some crime victims worry plea bargains still end up being too soft on criminals. The case over a fatal drunken driving crash last year on Kern Canyon Road ended with Surina Castro taking a deal for a six-year term. That didn't sit well with Maria Franco, the mother of the boy who was killed. Still, Franco said she believes people who make mistakes deserve second chances.
Plea bargains have a bad reputation but prosecutors say they provide justice.
And they are crucial to a system that otherwise would collapse under a crush of cases, officials said. There are nowhere near enough judges or courtrooms to try all cases. Even the whopping 372 felony jury trials in 1996 was a small fraction of the roughly 5,000 felony cases filed that year. The heavy trial numbers of previous years had put too much wear and tear on the system, inefficiently requiring more lawyers, clerks and other staff to keep up, said Kern Public Defender Mark Arnold. And they're entitled to that.