It is the law and those laws were put there by people who dealt more harshly with felons than we do today.
If it isn’t right or just, it should be changed by lawful processes.
But I don’t support just giving them back as soon as their sentence is up, or if they have been out of jail for a year or whatever.
But if enough people disagree with me, they are welcome to engage the legislative process to do so, although I suspect what we see here in MD is not the will of the people, but the will of a portion of the legislature.
This is the same state that thought nothing about giving looters “space” to loot. I lived there for a few years and have spent time in it since then, and it isn’t my favorite place.
Having a population of people unable to participate in civic life does nothing to improve a place, just saying. Driving already marginalized people further from the mainstream of life does nothing except create alienation. I suppose after you’ve driven people to the margins, you can then condemn them for dwelling there, so that’s convenient.