Trial by Jury?

It seldom happens with criminal cases in this country, or so asserts Michelle Alexander.  In an article in yesterday's NY Times, she states that "More than 90 percent of criminal cases are never tried before a jury."  If she is correct, we clearly have a problem, as all citizens have a right to a jury trial.  To Alexander's thinking, there is a very real, practical problem in these numbers: If the number of people pleading out to a crime decreases by a reasonable amount, the justice system could come to a crawl.  We'd need a lot more judges and lawyers - and time - to handle this case load.