Have only 5% of U.S. inmates received a trial? According to this article, 95% of inmates in the U.S. have never received a trial, choosing a plea bargain to avoid potentially punitive sentencing if found guilty.

Have only 5% of U.S. inmates received a trial? According to this article, 95% of inmates in the U.S. have never received a trial, choosing a plea bargain to avoid potentially punitive sentencing if found guilty. > The reality is that almost no one who is imprisoned in America has gotten a trial,” explains award-winning journalist, Chris Hedges, in a recent Truthdig column. “There is rarely an impartial investigation. A staggering 97 percent of all federal cases and 95 percent of all state felony cases are resolved through plea bargaining.” Of those millions who bargained away their right to a trial by accepting plea deals, “significant percentages of them are innocent.” Is this true? Have any reliable studies been performed to validate this number?

The Bureau of Justice Statistics(part of the Department of Justice) publishes tables of felony convictions by type of conviction. Here is one such report from 2002, which shows that _about 5% of incarcerated felons in prison that year received a trial._ (Source: BJS, State Court Sentencing of Convicted Felons)

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A slightly more comprehensive article about plea bargaining, released by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (also part of DoJ) explains more about the process. They also cite some academic literature. I didn't review the academic article cited, but BJA claims that their results show a similar result (that 90-95% of inmates pled guilty) (Source: BJA, Plea and Charge Bargaining).