From my understanding, it wasn't the prison term that caused Swartz to reject the plea; it was the felony conviction.

Also, it might be difficult to consider being locked in a cell with people who are liable to rape you to assert power.

In addition, we never heard his side of the story. It's possible he had zero intent to ever distribute these. In which case, going to federal prison for trespassing seems absurd (and questionable jurisdiction).

Hackers don't go to "rape you in the ass" prison. They go to places like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Prison_Camp,_Yankton

I am not sure about the district Swartz is in, but I've known folks who went to FCI Lompoc (for non-violent felonies -- albeit ones with actual victims and non-trivial monetary damage, i.e., they did deserve to go to prison fair and square). While federal prisons are it's far cry from California state prisons (which, even at low security levels, are far more violent than state prisons -- it's not uncommon to take a longer federal sentence as opposed to a shorter CA state prison sentence for this reason), it certainly not "club fed". Swartz would have certainly have been beaten to a pulp on a regular basis, would have been treated to diesel therapy, and while possibility of sexual assault would have been low, it would be far from remote.

Federal correctional institutions (FCI's) are a step up from Federal prison camps (FPC's). They are generally used for drug offenders and somewhat scarier people. For reference, the hacker serving the longest sentence for hacking in history (caused tens of millions of fraudulent CC charges) is serving it at an FPC.

Ah, so apparently I learned something new: there's a FPC attached to FCI Lompoc, which I am guessing is where Mitnick served time when he was at Lompoc (for his earlier convictions, rather than the most infamous one) as well as Captain Crunch (I am guessing he did not offer Energy Transfer Massages there, however).

http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/lox/index.jsp

The only reasonable offer would have been to drop the ridiculous charges and stop persecuting a citizen for his non-criminal civil disobedience.

I think you don't understand. He was certainly entitled to his civil disobedience (everyone has that option). You are also entitled to face whatever penalties under the law there are for the illegal actions you take. What he did was certainly illegal.

>What he did was certainly illegal.

His lawyers didn't seem to think so.

Neither did John Gotti's. You could as easily claim Aaron's guilty because Carmen Ortiz thought so.

Aaron's lawyers presented plausible arguments. Maybe he would have been found guilty at trial, maybe not. In no event was the outcome a certainty.