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"If I were a convicted felon in this country, with no hope of getting my rights back no matter how clean I lived no matter how hard I tried, with no abilitiy to get a decent job.

Why should I even try to obey the law when I will pay for it for the rest of my life no matter what.

It seems to me that of you are going to let a person out of prison it is only fair to give them a shot at redemption. "

I have known several ex-convicts in my life. Each of them has found a good job and is living within the law. Of course, I also know that many do not do so.

Yes, there should be some means available to regain one's lost rights. In most states, such means exist, on the state level. It's not easy, but I don't think it should be easy. One of the reasons that rights are removed is as a deterrent. It may be a lousy deterrent, but that's one of the reasons. Losing the right to vote doesn't seem to matter much, since only a minority of eligible voters bothers to vote at all.

Getting the right back of a convicted felon to own firearms, however, should, I believe, be limited to only those who have not committed any violent offense, and I include spousal or child abuse in that category. Frankly, I'm not willing to let violent felons _ever_ own firearms. It just doesn't make any sense.

Of course, the real answer is not to commit any felonies. By doing that, you avoid all the problems, it seems to me.

Of course I aggree when it comes to violent crime, such as murder, forcible rape, child molestation etc. people who commit those kind of crimes should be punished severely. But those kind of people should get the death penalty anyway.

But non-violent felonies should be expunged after good conduct is assurred over time. And all rights should be restored.

A person who cashed a bad check 20 years ago should not be deprived of rights for life.

I like the restitutional method of punishement for non violent crime. The criminal would pay the person offened a sum of money to compensate for the the loss plus damages. Less people would end up in prison unless of course they refuse to pay the restituion.