Agreed.
1. Felonies are, frankly, too easy to commit by anyone, let alone by people who're trying to commit a misdemeanor.
2. I think for any infraction, whether parking sideways or knocking over a bank, whatever the sentence is, once it's completes, it ought to be as though the person had never offended. No one should have to carry the equivalent of Jean Valjean's "yellow passport". Don't agree? Then harsh up the penalties until you do.
3. Some crimes can never be repaid. Taking a life, for instance, or rape. The question comes down to sentencing: will we take the offender's whole life, whether all at once on the gurney, or by degrees with a life sentence? If not, then we have to be willing, out of whatever sense of mercy and grace, be willing one day that the offender will walk around free. Really, truly, as free as you or me.