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>Does he have any idea what even 6 months in jail would have been like for a 20-something?

Still a huge difference between 30 years and 6 months (which was probably 3 months in reality).

OTOH, a felony conviction on your record is a lot more damaging than 6 months in jail.

A felony conviction is not necessarily such a big deal and in some cases is even a "good" thing to advance your career if you plan on staying on the "security field". I made a post[1] in this same thread referring to this, but in short: A lot of convicted computer criminals have made very successful careers in the technology/security business out of having been convicted of computer crimes. You might even argue that their success is owed to the controversy, social support, and PR created because of their convictions.

[1]http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5061071

In the federal system good time credits are only available for sentences over a year.

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