I believe the monetary value for felony had not been updated for quite some time. Think about it this way--do you believe that someone who steals a cell phone should be charged with a felony, given the way such a charge will later impact their capacity to seek employment? I disagree with Unspoken. Because our criminal justice system was never intended in most cases to lock up criminals until their death, it therefore needs to consider a path toward reintegration. We don't want a system that hardens criminals and renders them unfit to reintegrate into society. 

Alaska Common Ground led conversations on this issue in recent years. http://akcommonground.org/programs/cost-effective-justice/. How many of you have been involved in these ongoing deliberations? A single piece of bipartisan legislation is passed this session, with many doing their homework, and commenters beg for more polarized thinking.