I'm concerned about lawlessness, but if the only alternative is that $950 theft is a _felony_ that's messed up. This seems more like a case of not being able to deal with crime than lax sentencing.
A simple solution is that the amount should be be based on the value stolen by the entire organization. RICO laws work much the same way with the mafia.
So, if your crew stole $10,000 worth of stuff over the past year, you’d be looking at a $10k theft charge even if you individually only stole $50 of merchandise.
Nobody will risk prison for $950 of stuff. If you make it basically a ticket, then you can easily get dozens of people to be able to steal a meaningful amount of stuff.
If you stole $950 from me, I'd want it handled as a felony. Or if a misdemeanor, that you at least got jail time (after giving my money back). I do not want people thinking they can steal with impunity. Otherwise, can I have all of the tax dollars I've spent on law enforcement returned now please?
This is patently false, do you think people didn't go to prison prior to the law change? In fact, so many people were risking prison time for petty theft that is what led to enacting the law in first place to deal with the overcrowding in the state prison system, as summed up in this layman article: https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-160551360299
The “root causes” of theft (and most crime) is social breakdown. It’s not poverty or need—or you’d expect far more crime in say India than in the US and you don’t actually see that.
People will risk prison for a lot less than $950. Chicago isn't San Francisco, and if you're caught stealing a weed-whacker out of a garage, the police will mess up your year. People still break into my garage. I don't think felony sentencing has really any impact on these kinds of crimes; all it does is stuff prisons full of hopeless people.
That's not to say there isn't a policing solution to this problem! Just that dialing up consequences isn't it.
