Why are they letting ex-felons into the military?

This is a very interesting question that I had to google because my husband just recently joined the military and I was curious to know for sure. I read the following article about this...

Military recruiting felons

"If I ever get home to Houston alive,

I won't drive a truck anymore." - Steve Earle

Over the weekend I discussed the difficulties for convicts finding employment, so I should mention at least one employer who's hiring more ex-felons than ever: The US military. That's the upside for ex-felons; the downside is they'll probably train you for a few months then ship your *** off to Iraq.

They're spending more than ever on marketing for every new recruit and still coming up short, so the Army has expanded its prospective labor pool. Notes the San Francisco Chronicle ("US is recruiting misfits for army," Oct. 1).

In February, the Baltimore Sun wrote that there was "a significant increase in the number of recruits with what the Army terms 'serious criminal misconduct' in their background" -- a category that included "aggravated assault, robbery, vehicular manslaughter, receiving stolen property and making terrorist threats." From 2004 to 2005, the number of those recruits rose by more than 54 percent, while alcohol and illegal drug waivers, reversing a four-year decline, increased by more than 13 percent.

In June, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that, under pressure to fill the ranks, the Army had been allowing into its ranks increasing numbers of "recruits convicted of misdemeanor crimes, according to experts and military records." In fact, as the military's own data indicated, "the percentage of recruits entering the Army with waivers for misdemeanors and medical problems has more than doubled since 2001." ...

the Houston Chronicle reported in August that Army recruiters were trolling around the outskirts of a Dallas-area job fair for ex-convicts.

"We're looking for high school graduates with no more than one felony on their record," one recruiter said.

I don't actually mind expanding military recruitment to low-level felons; in fact I think it's a good idea. Military discipline might be a good cure for what ails many ex-offenders - they would receive focused training in discipline instead of just punishment for its lack. If the military could offer record expungement, I bet it'd get a lot more takers.

The author of the SF Chronicle piece worries that as a result of the expanded labor pool, "a new all-volunteer generation of UUUU's may emerge -- the underachieving, unable, unexceptional, unintelligent, unsound, unhinged, unacceptable, unhealthy, undesirable, unloved and uncivil -- all led by the unqualified, doing the unnecessary for the ungrateful," but I don't think that's a big concern.

Vietnam era UUUUs were draftees, plucked out of their daily lives and shipped off to fight without their consent. Ex-felons who volunteer for the military today are different - they're more likely patriots looking for opportunities they can't find in the private employment market, searching, even at obvious personal risk, for that rare employer who will let them "be all that they can be."

-I suppose based on this article that they are recruiting ex-felons due to their increased need for troops in Iraq. It is a little scary to think that my husband may be working among them but if they are following the true creed of the military standards then they don't have much room to screw around. This is one great thing about the military, if they break the regulations and moral codes then they are punished. So I guess new recruits with backgrounds are getting a break and a chance to reshape their lives and to actually make a brighter future for themselves and for their country.

Why do not you provide the source for this question and then i'd evaluate answering it. after I first joined, each person with a conviction pending had the alternative of protection stress service or reformatory time. I want now to not answer indept in this till I see the source of your question. The very last I knew, a convicted felon had no rights and replaced into no longer allowed to serve interior the united states protection stress. As to the Senate operating the protection stress, someone had extra valuable examine their authorities a touch closer. The President is the Commander in chief of the military and the Secretary of protection, with the numerous protection stress branch Secretaries less than him make the options in holding with thoughts made through the Joint Chiefs of crew. the abode and Senate grow to keep up a correspondence purely at the same time as dealing with appropriations for the protection stress and choosing even if to salary conflict, which should be approved through the abode of Representatives.

Think about it....if we let thousands of ex-felons into the military and the gov had no idea if they were legit or not and a bunch of them got together and happened to get their hands on some secret info or project and sold it to the highest bidder...it would prabably not bode well for our country...and on top of that the ex cons can probably use that money to get into a postiion of power and cause even more devestation.

Well if they are an "EX-felon" that means that their criminal record has been expunged and sealed. So they are then no more a felon than you or I.

Why is US over-populated and US military comes up short of volunteers for a cause that will take out US eventually?

They aren't. Look up the qualifications for enlistment.