4 years?? what a joke.
IMO the punishment system (especially in the US) is completely fucked and backfires on it self. No matter what you do when you get out of prison the chances you will find a decent paying job (more than $7 an hour) are SLIM. almost every employer does background checks. but so what, if your a ciminal do you deserve a good paying job?
regardless, you "paid you debt to society" but now you cant get a job, so what do you do? go back to stealing and selling drugs. why? because the shitty cheese sandwich job doesnt pay enough for you to live. then you get busted selling drugs again... back to jail again... more money out of tax payers pockets, and so on.
so the answer? EYE FOR AN EYE PUNISHMENT
^honestly, i havent thought that far in my theory of the US justice system yet