I have voted for and re-steemed this post. I should point out however, that although you speak of non-violent crimes, the Link posted in @wondergirl's reply refers to a Wikipedia entry which reveals that the charges were for money-laundering, drug trafficking, identity theft and other very serious internet fraud related crimes, and while they may seem non-violent, they fund and facilitate drug cartels, terrorist organisations and, organised crime, sex-trafficking and illicit weapons transactions.
I would say that these crimes are far more serious than a string of murders, rapes, kidnappings or even a shooting spree as they facilitate all of these and far more in large numbers, especially as the 'silk road' dark-net operation was a hive of underworld activity of this nature.
I believe in a correction approach which does not put offenders together to foster an osmosis of negative characteristics but rather an environment of increased nurture as people with criminal intent are normally deficient in aspects of social and personal skills.
I do not believe that the punishment in this case is fitting.
It is inappropriate however, to promote this agenda on the grounds of non-violent crime without providing the omitted information.
Those who are up-voting this post aught to be fully apprised of the nature of the crimes in question so that they can make an educated decision rather than simply responding to a bleeding-heart appeal for the 'victim/perp' in a case they are led to believe is non-violent.
This is akin to saying that a heroin producer is non-violent since he does not personally kill anyone. His violence lies in his generation of wealth through the destruction of others through facilitating and promoting drug abuse.
The crimes this man was convicted of most certainly represent some of the most violent, pernicious, henous the world has ever seen and are an extremely serious threat to all as the facilitation of a network like the silk-road in question results in far higher levels of cooperation between entities which destroy society.