The point of the article is that the penalties risked for going to trial are very much out of line with the actual crime. I know a guy who, in his young and stupid days, got busted for drugs. He was offered a plea where he would get probation in exchange for pleading guilty to a felony. Rather than risk ten years, he accepted the plea, and has had to live with a record for over a decade now.
The court system is broken. The only way it limps along is by making sure that 90% of arrested do not go to trial. The end result is that first-time offenders get felony records, and career criminals go through a revolving door for years without jail time.
Well, I agree with both of those assertions. I think it's an unfortunate result of how large and impersonal the country has become, an accretion of laws that are beyond necessity, and the self-interest of the prosecutors rated on "results," combined with a less law-abiding population than we used to have.