He broke the law and he's going to do a few years in prison for it. I don't understand what the big deal is? Should I have sympathy for him because he is a sysadmin?
Justice system did exactly what it was designed to do, rehabilitate criminals and deter others from doing crimes.
Next time, is he going to deny people access who deserve that access because of some ideological nonsense? Doubt it.
Though he probably will never get hired in IT again, not just because he is a felon, but because you google his name and there it is, him keeping passwords away from his ex-employer.