"... A person who is convicted of 5 misdemeanors (and I would be amenable to certain misdemeanors) should have their charge elevated to a felony status...."

Very dangerous line of thinking. For example, there is a guy in california who got busted for stealing a snickers candybar from a gas station (shoplifting - he was hungry). Well that was his 3rd misdemanor, so they upped it to a felony - which made it his 3rd felony (3rd felony in a LOT of years) - which means the 3 strikes rule applys - so the guy got a life sentence - for stealing a freakn candybar! And you know what? That guys is going to be there until someone changes the law. This is just one example that's become more popular than some of the others - but there are 1000's of guys in the USA that have been totaly screwed because of thinking like this.