thedrifter
03-14-07, 08:05 AM
Article published Mar 14, 2007
Mar 13, 2007
Gainesville Sun
Felons in uniform
Time was when the slightest blemish on one's record was enough to disqualify one for military service. But the Iraq war, with extended and multiple tours of duty, is changing that considerably.
Enlistment into the armed services can be barred for two categories of crime: felonies and serious misdemeanors such as burglary and vehicular homicide. But those with such convictions can serve if they are granted a moral waiver.
The numbers of such waivers granted by the Army increased in the past three years from just more than 4,900 in 2003 to 8,129 last year. That was happening while the Army used other methods to increase the recruiting pool. Those included cash bonuses and less-stringent weight and age restrictions.
The Marine Corps has issued far more moral waivers than the Army, but it has a stricter policy on drug use: It requires a waiver for one-time drug use; the other branches of service do not. The Marines granted 20,750 moral waivers last year.
In the past three years since the beginning of the war, the total number of moral waivers granted by all four branches of the armed services totaled 125,525. And in the past three years, the number of felons who enlisted in the armed forces nearly doubled, going from 824 felons in 2003 to 1,605 last year.
The number of moral waivers was obtained from the Pentagon through the Freedom of Information Act by the Michael D. Palm Center at the University of California-Santa Barbara.
Michael Boucai, the study's researcher, said that rather than ignoring the rise in recruits with criminal backgrounds, the Pentagon should promote policies to help integrate ex-offenders into the armed forces.
"The problem is not that the armed forces are letting in ex-offenders - most of the recruits become fine service members, and military service often has a strong rehabilitative effect. The real problem is that, increasingly, the military fails to also recruit the best and the brightest."
As long as the standards have been lowered to admit them, the recruits with moral waivers indeed need more guidance and supervision. It may help produce a better soldier. More importantly, it may make that soldier a better civilian when he or she returns home.
Ellie
Mar 13, 2007
Gainesville Sun
Felons in uniform
Time was when the slightest blemish on one's record was enough to disqualify one for military service. But the Iraq war, with extended and multiple tours of duty, is changing that considerably.
Enlistment into the armed services can be barred for two categories of crime: felonies and serious misdemeanors such as burglary and vehicular homicide. But those with such convictions can serve if they are granted a moral waiver.
The numbers of such waivers granted by the Army increased in the past three years from just more than 4,900 in 2003 to 8,129 last year. That was happening while the Army used other methods to increase the recruiting pool. Those included cash bonuses and less-stringent weight and age restrictions.
The Marine Corps has issued far more moral waivers than the Army, but it has a stricter policy on drug use: It requires a waiver for one-time drug use; the other branches of service do not. The Marines granted 20,750 moral waivers last year.
In the past three years since the beginning of the war, the total number of moral waivers granted by all four branches of the armed services totaled 125,525. And in the past three years, the number of felons who enlisted in the armed forces nearly doubled, going from 824 felons in 2003 to 1,605 last year.
The number of moral waivers was obtained from the Pentagon through the Freedom of Information Act by the Michael D. Palm Center at the University of California-Santa Barbara.
Michael Boucai, the study's researcher, said that rather than ignoring the rise in recruits with criminal backgrounds, the Pentagon should promote policies to help integrate ex-offenders into the armed forces.
"The problem is not that the armed forces are letting in ex-offenders - most of the recruits become fine service members, and military service often has a strong rehabilitative effect. The real problem is that, increasingly, the military fails to also recruit the best and the brightest."
As long as the standards have been lowered to admit them, the recruits with moral waivers indeed need more guidance and supervision. It may help produce a better soldier. More importantly, it may make that soldier a better civilian when he or she returns home.
Ellie