Is there a stigma that haunts former inmates upon release? In the US it seems ones career is essentially over once convicted of anything more than a traffic violation.

In Denmark it would be illegal for an employer to discriminate against former inmates _if their crime is irrelevant for the job at hand_.

In practice, though... At least it's automatically erased after (IIRC) five years, depending on severity.

It's the same in the nordics. Most jobs check for a criminal record, even in smaller IT companies.

At least in Sweden, the outcome of being sentenced (losing your job, making it very hard to find a new one) is factored into the sentence (that is, they decrease the prison sentence due to these factors as more punishment will be had after release).