spoken like a true bleeding heart lib (a conservative who has yet to be victimized)
Spoken like a conservative who has never been unfairly detained or convicted of something you didn't do and who fears people who are "different".
Remember that the families being ruined are also victims of our great system and not just the victims of crimes. There is a reason that many people don't trust the police. It's relatively easy to trust the police in the US if you are a reasonably well off white person living in a nice part of town.
Let's say that you were convicted of killing someone and spent 10 years on death row and were finally exonerated. Now lets say your face had been in the press and everyone in your area had passed judgement on you and feared the worst. Your wife left you, you missed out on seeing your children grow up. They grew up with the stigma of a parent in jail and ridiculed by peers and acted out getting into crime themselves because you weren't there to discipline them. Your ex-wife was suicidal at some points and had trouble making ends meet. Maybe she got involved with some guys that were not the best influence on her or your children. The damage of this mistake is now reaching another generation of your family and starting them down the wrong path.
Now you have to find employment and have a 10 year hole in your work experience and people still don't trust you. They "know" you did it even though you had nothing to do with the crime. Do you move away from your home to start fresh leaving what's left of your family behind? Keep in mind this is actually a good scenario if you are released as innocent without a record.
Getting back to your comment about criminals or released innocents moving into my neighborhood or frankly the neighborhood of most people who own a pair of ML speakers.
Think about how likely that is for a minute. The demographic that typically owns ML speakers is not living hand to mouth. I live in what I would call a top 1.5-2% neighborhood. The homes here are on a ridge spread apart with long driveways. The people here are self-employed like me, a CIO, a doctor, a business owner etc.. You get the idea. Across the street from my subdivision is a top 1% gated community with a guard, no solicitation allowed, etc. Crime around here is nil.
Take anyone released from prison with a record, and ask yourself what their chances are of ever being successful enough to be able to afford a home in an area like this might be.
