Why the hell do Republicans hate criminal justice reform?

[RFayette 🇻🇦]

In many countries, any criminal record can ruin your life. America is actually a rare exception where misdemeanors are something middle-class folk can basically laugh off as youthful indiscretion.

Out of curiosity, in which countries are criminal records the most life-ruining?  My impression is that the United States is fairly far on the punitive end of that scale, but I'm not too familiar with how other countries handle crime.

[RFayette 🇻🇦]

In many countries, any criminal record can ruin your life. America is actually a rare exception where misdemeanors are something middle-class folk can basically laugh off as youthful indiscretion.

Out of curiosity, in which countries are criminal records the most life-ruining?  My impression is that the United States is fairly far on the punitive end of that scale, but I'm not too familiar with how other countries handle crime.

The US is quite punitive to felons, but job applications and such in the US generally only ask about felony convictions, and not all criminal convictions like they do in other countries. I believe the US is also quite progressive when it comes to "ban the box" legislation, although that is partly because the criminal justice system is rather cruel compared to some European countries.

That's interesting.  So places like Norway which have fairly luxurious prisons and light sentences....only to slap people with a criminal record that's a de-facto "never employable again" sentence?