I do think there are some who get things on their permanent record that make it tough to move forward with life - if it's drug-related, I'd like that to be something they can move past so that they don't think their options are already pared down because of what will be revealed on a background check by schools and employers.
But believe me, I'm the last person who over-sympathizes with the "poverty" myth or systemic racism as the root of these problems. Part of the reason we saw Donald Trump elected is the direction that Obama's administration was attempting to force social engineering across this country. Attempting to coerce cities and neighborhoods to allow public housing that the resident tax-payers do not want is a great example. Try to demonstrate that this will over-burden the school system that will suddenly have hundreds more kids without the coinciding increase in funding (a disproportionate number of them will have unemployed, single-parent households), or that statistics clearly show that this brings a sharp increase in violent crime and a sharp decrease in property values, and you are an unprogressive racist.