When someone serves his/her sentence to do time, and completes it, why is it still not be enough to have paid their ‘debt to society’? Why must they bear the stigma of a criminal long after they paid their debt?
The answer is (unfortunately for those who regret their crimes—as opposed to those who are evil and choose to commit crime knowing it is wrong) obvious: many criminals tend to commit more crimes again. We can’t know who is going to learn from his/her mistakes and commit no more crime in the future (even the guilty party doesn’t know that). Innocent members of society deserve to know who an ex-con is so that we may all protect ourselves as best we can against that criminal potentially victimizing us in the future. It would thus be foolish and reckless to take the position that a convicted criminal should be given the benefit of the doubt merely because he/she “did her time.”
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https://www.quora.com/When-did-a-person-sentenced-to-do-time-and-having-completed-it-still-not-be-enough-to-have-paid-their-debt-to-society-Why-must-they-bear-the-stigma-of-a-criminal-long-after-they-paid-their-debt/answer/Eric-Johnson-311