The written guidelines would improve the public's confidence in the criminal justice system's ability to produce just results, because they would ensure that all plea bargaining decisions are made with public scrutiny. They would also ensure consistency and help minimize the influence of subjective factors in plea bargaining. Pretrial settlement conferences would promote judicial efficiency and accelerated case dispositions. Other needs are communication with the police and the victim and the use of written agreements. Each prosecutor should require that any plea bargain involving a felony be communicated to the police and the victim or victim's family before it becomes public knowledge. In addition, each prosecutor should require that all agreements made between the State and a defendant in a criminal proceeding be in writing and signed by the defendant, the defendant's counsel, the deputy prosecutor in charge of the case, and the prosecutor or prosecutor's designee. Adopting all of these recommendations would bring plea bargaining into the open and permit it to continue under standard terms and conditions. An analysis of several hundred felony cases that were disposed of in 1980 shows that plea bargaining is being properly handled in Hawaii, despite public concern. Nevertheless, these recommendations would improve the present system. An extensive analysis of the present system, footnotes, data tables, appendixes presenting a data collection instrument and written guidelines from other jurisdictions, and 91 references are provided.