You may find it interesting that there's a guy in California who died in prison under the three strikes law for attempting to steal a candy bar, because a petty theft can be prosecuted as a felony for people with previous thefts. Another guy, who was never arrested for theft or violence of any kind, has been in prison for 20 years and will likely remain there for life after getting arrested with 13 sheets of LSD. The cost of keeping someone in prison can be over $100,000 a year. Regardless of the seriousness of the crimes committed by the people presented in the ACLU link (and I don't disagree with you that they are not trivial), the fact remains that we have the most overzealous criminal system in the world.