I have to completely disagree with you. If you give a hefty sentence - 14 years - for burglary, then in a similar way what are we giving out for drink driving, domestic abuse, murder, rape, paedophilia? Even with serious crimes that carry a hefty sentence, people still commit them - you'd just find that prisons are filling up quicker with long term inmates - and that's no good for anyone.
There's an argument that institutionalising people, and also giving them prolonged access to other criminals, is surely a bad thing.
You might tackle the problem of kids stealing sweets from shops, but I'm sure you'd just cause many more problems in the future.