The real problem is that our society has this bizarre idea that certain people whether it be businessmen who commit white-collar crimes, members of the intelligence community (I know the FBI is domestic stuff, but I'm including them here for the purposes of this post), etc don't "belong" in prison. We've created this completely illogical protected class of criminals. The real question, and I don't have the answer, is why is stealing $10,000 in an armed robbery where no one actually ends up being harmed viewed as being worse than a businessman who steals $100 million? Few prosecutors even approach most white collar crimes seeking jail time for the defendants. There are obviously exceptions (ex: Enron), but still...
Without getting into the CIA kurfluffle specifically, you're dead right on this. Yes, it's worse being robbed with a gun then an fountain pen, but white collar criminals need hammered. As part of sentencing "reforms" Ohio passed a few years ago, someone has to steal at least
$150k before they can even be
considered for prison unless they have a prior felony or violate their pre-trial bond (or have a violent misdemeanor conviction within the previous two years, but you get the point).
