These are great questions. When I look at religious institutions (I'm thinking of the Catholic church, or the LDS church that I grew up in) there are formal ways to achieve absolution. I wonder if we need a secular version of that, other than "prison time"? (And even "prison time" typically carries life-long stigma, rather than absolution).

Absolution doesn't mean you ignore character traits, unless it's a simple society.

Nobody deserves one.

Yet something remarkable happens to all of us when people who don't deserve them, are given one.

Some people won't ever change....

The ones who will, will stun you. And we are all made better by the effort.

Yes