system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Certain felonies should be erased from criminal records after X amount of law-abiding, post-release years

We see that people who have felony records are much more likely to return to a life of crime after they’ve “paid their debt to society”. That’s because once you’re a felon, you’re a felon for life. That means finding a job that pays a living wage, going back to school or even starting your own business is extremely difficult. People are then forced to return to crime to provide for themselves and their families or they become dependent upon government assistance. Wouldn’t it make more sense to erase certain felony convictions after someone does their time and remains law-abiding for a pre-determined timeframe once they’re released? There has to be a way to redeem oneself, or there’s very little incentive to not return to a lifestyle that while illegal, paid the bills.
gpt
The purpose of a criminal record is so there is a record of somebody’s criminal activity. While most employers require you to disclose felony convictions on job applications, many of them are willing to overlook such convictions if they were long enough ago and there has not been any recent reoffending. Being released from an armed robbery charge last week carries much more impact than being released from an armed robbery charge 20 years ago with no continued offenses since then.