My friend was making this point after his recent visit to the US.
Here in the UK, we have the 'Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974' which allows many offences to be stricken from one's criminal record after being 'spent' and one has served their sentence to the community.
It doesn't strike serious offences, or allow one to avoid declaring offences when applying for positions of responsibility to others (such as a train driver, teacher or nurse).
It does, however, mean that ex-cons can return to a nearly normal life once they have paid the legally-prescribed sentence for their crime(s).
-Nano.