I've changed myself almost dramatically a fair few times over my life (which has been pretty short, really) and I can safely say people are perfectly able to learn from mistakes and turn themselves around and I suspect almost nobody is totally incapable of it- that being the reason why its neccesary for us to actually learn, even in the hardest way (I mean if we do something wrong and don't pay in any way for it, it's not that likely that we'll ever wisen up..) If someone screws up and they're lucky, but more importantly a decent person, they'll learn. There would be no point in that case to continue to judge and punish somebody for the rest of their life if they've done their time and truly repented. Besides being pointless, it would be horribly unfair and senseless. But if they've done something serious, like taken a life for no just reason, deliberately, their time shouldn't be over just because they've learned and are sorry- an eye for an eye, its only fair. Similarly just because a persons time is over desn't mean they've truly changed at all (even if they try to say they have.) And as far as judging someone for the rest of their life- unfortunately even if someone no longer deserves to be punished, they're still bound to get a certain level of scrutiny from the rest of the world for what they've done, mainly because of the question of whether they're ever likely to do it again, even if it's extremely doubtful, and also the fact that sometimes we hold grudges forever if we've been wronged- and that is unfortunately something that a wrongdoer just has to take, not neccesarily as punishment. Point being... of course it's unfair for a person to be punished and judged forever for what they've done, after all any remotely decent human can change, but it's the right of the rest of us to feel secure, and if that means being wary of someone for a past crime then its understandable. For me it would take a lot for me to write someone off completely, but I can understand why its done, even if its not always very fair...