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Should We Allow Convicts to Serve?

10:40 AM, Apr 22, 2008 • By JOHN NOONAN
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I take it the Associated Press is not a fan of the "Dirty Dozen" approach.

Under pressure to meet combat needs, the Army and Marine Corps brought in significantly more recruits with felony convictions last year than in 2006, including some with manslaughter and sex crime convictions.

Data released by a congressional committee shows the number of soldiers admitted to the Army with felony records jumped from 249 in 2006 to 511 in 2007. And the number of Marines with felonies rose from 208 to 350.

There's two sides to this coin. On one hand, the military is an excellent way to realign misguided souls who would--in all likelihood--continue down the wrong path upon release from prison.

On the other hand, I tend to agree with guys like General Barry McCaffrey, that these "are not people who should be wearing the uniform." So I suspect there's a happy medium here, and that the Army and Marines are carefully screening individuals with records before assimilating them into the military ranks, thus rendering breathless reporting on the subject unnecessary.

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