...because the penalties are so high. That's the actual reason. Because when the maximum penalty after a trial is a 30 day misdemeanor, you hire a lawyer and pay them two months of your salary and you make your case, because that's about the point past where spending more money to defend the case is no longer worth it against the possibility of losing.
But when the maximum penalty is a 30 year felony, or even a 10 year felony, you spend every dime you have, because the penalties are that high. And then, because criminals are so consistently charged with enormous penalties like that, which makes them consistently go all out on their defenses, the prosecutors go to Congress and say "we don't have enough resources to fight these people who have these high priced defense attorneys" and they get multimillion dollar budgets for individual cases.
Which brings on the arms race. So now you're not just spending every dime you have, you're spending every dime your parents have, every dime your friends have to prove that you didn't do it, every cent you can borrow from a bank or a loan shark, because the alternative is even worse. And the more defendants spend, the more prosecutors get to outspend them, because "we can't have criminals with more resources than prosecutors."
Scale back the stakes and you scale back the resources needed to fight over them.
...because the penalties are so high. That's the actual reason. Because when the maximum penalty after a trial is a 30 day misdemeanor, you hire a lawyer and pay them two months of your salary and you make your case, because that's about the point past where spending more money to defend the case is no longer worth it against the possibility of losing.
But when the maximum penalty is a 30 year felony, or even a 10 year felony, you spend every dime you have, because the penalties are that high. And then, because criminals are so consistently charged with enormous penalties like that, which makes them consistently go all out on their defenses, the prosecutors go to Congress and say "we don't have enough resources to fight these people who have these high priced defense attorneys" and they get multimillion dollar budgets for individual cases.
Which brings on the arms race. So now you're not just spending every dime you have, you're spending every dime your parents have, every dime your friends have to prove that you didn't do it, every cent you can borrow from a bank or a loan shark, because the alternative is even worse. And the more defendants spend, the more prosecutors get to outspend them, because "we can't have criminals with more resources than prosecutors."
Scale back the stakes and you scale back the resources needed to fight over them.