The main reason the justice system is failing - the lack of jury trials

From a story at the Portland Press Herald, titled The Maine Supreme Court asks large law firms to help with Public Defender Services. For the most part, they haven't. 

Peter Murray, a Portland-based attorney, has practiced law for 55 years. When he started as a trial lawyer, he took criminal cases even though it wasn’t his specialty. Other trial lawyers would do the same. But handling criminal cases has become “infinitely more complex in the last 50 years,” he said. Part of the reason is the numerous types of charges in a single case, Murray said. But the primary reason is cases rarely go to trial anymore. They end in plea bargains, meaning much of the criminal defense work is done outside a courtroom.