But if there's a massive untapped market of ex-felons willing, able, and desperate for work, then any company who hired them would have a huge economic advantag

But if there's a massive untapped market of ex-felons willing, able, and desperate for work, then any company who hired them would have a huge economic advantage! I think in reality ex-felons are much more likely to be unqualified, under-performing, and high-risk hires that could cause major issues at a company and that companies on average are smart to avoid them. Obviously that sucks tremendously for the ex-felons who would have been model employees, but you can't exactly weed them out by asking nicely during the interview process? I think best case is there may be certain jobs which are "firewalled" enough internally/externally that you can risk hiring a convicted felon but in most cases it's probably a rational choice by a company not to hire them. Broadly excluding any applicant with any conviction at any point of their life is certainly not appropriate and possibly even effectively illegal racial discrimination, but the flip side is hiring a dangerous felon, aka negligent hiring and if it causes harm to a customer or employee you can be sued for that as well.