That has only been my experience. Every single person I know who has ever been arrested has been strong-armed into a plea bargain, regardless of evidence or guilt.
John Oliver did a piece on public defenders that talks a lot about plea bargains, amongst other problems.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics
(2005), in 2003 there were 75,573 cases
disposed of in federal district court by trial or
plea. Of these, about 95 percent were
disposed of by a guilty plea (Pastore and
Maguire, 2003). While there are no exact
estimates of the proportion of cases that are
resolved through plea bargaining, scholars
estimate that about 90 to 95 percent of both
federal and state court cases are resolved
through this process (Bureau of Justice
Statistics, 2005; Flanagan and Maguire,
1990).
John Oliver did a piece on public defenders that talks a lot about plea bargains, amongst other problems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USkEzLuzmZ4
Here's a study from the Department of Justice:
https://www.bja.gov/Publications/PleaBargainingResearchSumma...
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2005), in 2003 there were 75,573 cases disposed of in federal district court by trial or plea. Of these, about 95 percent were disposed of by a guilty plea (Pastore and Maguire, 2003). While there are no exact estimates of the proportion of cases that are resolved through plea bargaining, scholars estimate that about 90 to 95 percent of both federal and state court cases are resolved through this process (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2005; Flanagan and Maguire, 1990).