Society needs to have something between jaywalking and attempted murder. Right now if you fish without a permit in the wrong place you're a felon and you will never be able to get a decent job for the rest of your life. The entire reason the American criminal justice system is like this, at its core is to punish minority groups. I don't ever see this changing, and it's a big part of why I want to make an exit by 40.…
It is called misdemeanor and several classes of it exist. And no, fishing without a permit isn’t a felony anywhere in the US.
Your 19 and you run, you get caught and the local DA adds a few charges.
Life ruined.
This of course depends on how rich your parents are. If your parents can bail you out next day, and get a good lawyer it's just a bad memory.