Don't Plead

By Joseacute; M. Ferrer III

ONE JUST MAN

by JAMES MILLS 239 pages. Simon & Schuster. $7.95.

The criminal justice system in large cities in the U.S. is enough to turn a reasonable man into a revolutionary. Or at least enough to make him write a popular novel about being driven to such extremes. James Mills is a most reasonable man who reported on courts, police and crime for LIFE and who wrote the novel Report to the Commissioner. He now has written another about a Manhattan legal-aid lawyer frustrated by 17 years of running defendants through the revolving door of justice. Al Dori does his job well but comes to wonder what good his job is doing. As the case loads grow, defendants increasingly must plead guilty if the system is not to stop up. To get them to plead, prosecutors must agree to lower sentences. This may mean no further incarceration because the agreed-on sentence equals the jail time that has already been served awaiting trial. Thus even an innocent defendant who cannot make bail is often better off trading away his reputation than insisting on his rights.

Faced with a system in which ar rest can automatically mean guilt, Dori decides to take radical action. He tells his clients that no matter what deal is offered to them, "don't plead." The prisoners and other legal-aid lawyers catch on, and the idea spreads. The city's al ready overcrowded jails overflow with prisoners waiting for trial. Soon they riot. The police are ordered to limit ar rests to serious offenders. The cops strike in protest; so do firemen and sanitation men. Robbery, murder and mayhem spread throughout the city. The same thing begins happening in other cities, and the nation is plunged into chaos.

Unfortunately, so is the book. Mills knows courts, prisons and the anguish of those caught in an irrational system of criminal justice. His special knowledge and generous empathy give a vivid authenticity to the first half of his novel. But he appears less informed about how cities and social forces work, and this lack makes Al Dori's campaign and the national disruptions that follow an implausible echo of currently popular disaster epics.

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