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Prison or Military

During the mid-20th Century, young hooligans were frequently given a choice of joining the Marines or doing jail time. This was a problem for the marines, providing recruits who were un-educated and nothing but troublemakers with a choice of prison or Marines. This could never hold up as a law in any state, but was more of an informal use of a judge's discretion. It made a lot of good people out of people that may have gone a different path had they not had that option. It's probably a lot less common today with today's very professional military. While the Army's policy banning people from enlisting to avoid jail is decades old, it has not always been in effect. Today the US military is an all volunteer force and it is not allowed to take people who are joining to avoid going to prison.

Army regulations say that people facing pending charges are ineligible to enlist. Army policy reflected in Army Regulation 601-210, paragraph 4-32a states "waiver is not authorized if a criminal or juvenile court charge is pending or if such a charge was dismissed or dropped at any stage of the court proceedings on condition that the offender enlists in a military service." Army recruiters are also banned from helping someone get out of pending charges by joining the Army. The choice of the military or jail may help clear a court's docket, but it puts at risk the integrity of the recruitment process.

Most branches of the military now explicitly prohibit service as an alternative to criminal conviction. The military has much higher standards now for entry than in the late 60's, early 70's. Back then if a person had a pulse they eere physically capable of being in the military. Military service is not offered as an option in place of charging against the law, nor can it be offered as another option for sentence or punishment. There are misconceptions that some judges may suggest military service rather than jail time, but the military branches don't accept this policy.

In 2021 Florida state lawmakers were looking for creative alternatives to prison time for certain first-time low-level offenders. One bill filed for the 2021 legislative session would provide the option of serving in the military instead of behind bars, but even if passed, the idea is likely to run into obstacles. A first-time offender, 25 or younger, who is facing convictions carrying up to four years in prison would have the option of serving in the military in lieu of prison time under the legislation.

A criminal record can affect many areas of a young person's future, depending on the crime they are charged with, such as employment, education, and housing. Another area that could be affected is a young man's plan to join the Military. It's not uncommon for a teenager to graduate high school and join a military branch upon graduation. Many teens even enroll in their junior year, so everything will be ready by the time they complete their senior year.

When an individual who wants to enlist in the Military is arrested or already has a criminal record it will affect the anticipated military capabilities Each service requires its employees to meet strict ethical standards. Additionally, the initial screening by the recruiter, an interview is conducted that covers each Applicant's background in a visit to a Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) which determines mental aptitude, as well as physical and moral qualifications for enlistment. Evaluations include medical checks, physical evaluations, and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) if not previously taken. Some individuals will have a credit check and/or scan processed for a record.

Some types of criminal activity are disqualifying; A waiver is required in various cases, so each service will investigate the circumstances closing the breach and decide on qualification. Candidates with existing financial problems will not overcome these difficulties by paying junior NCOs. Consequently, credit histories could be considered part of the service decision length.

Joining the Military with past issues is possible, but much depends on the age, nature, and severity of the problems that led to run-ins with the law. Many people who have had past felony or misdemeanor convictions may need to hitch a branch of the military service. First, military service is not offered as an option in place of charging a defendant against the law, nor can it be offered as another option for your sentence or punishment. There are misconceptions that some judges may suggest military service rather than jail time, but the military branches don't accept this policy. Being charged with an offense before joining the Military or maybe after can invite complications.

Honesty about past interactions with the law is important when chatting with a recruiter. The Air force, Coast Guard, Army, Navy, and Marines grant "Moral Character" enlistment waivers. It can be done on a case-by-case basis, and various rules apply. Not all crimes are dismissed, but certain traffic, misdemeanors, and even some felonies may be. Among them include:

• Minor Traffic Offenses: Applicants with six or more minor traffic offenses, where the fine was $100 or more per offense, must obtain a waiver.
• Minor Non-Traffic Offenses: Applicants with three or more civil convictions or other opposing dispositions for lesser non-traffic offenses must obtain a waiver.
• Juvenile Offenses: Section 571.3(c)(2)(ii) defines a juvenile delinquency/offense as committed jointly by the Applicant under eighteen. The Applicant must disclose all offenses committed as a juvenile, including offenses that have been cleared, discharged, sealed, or pardoned.According to section 571.3(c)(2)(iv)(B), these successive procedures, while acknowledging the rehabilitation, do not change the fact that the juvenile committed the offense. An applicant's failure to disclose their juvenile delinquency is considered a federal misdemeanor.
• Misdemeanor Offenses: Section 571.3(c)(1) applicants need to have a misdemeanor waiver if arrested, cited, charged, or detained and are allowed to plead guilty to a lesser misdemeanor or to plead guilty to ownership of transferred property (worth of $100 or less). An arrest or questioning that has not resulted in a charge does not require a waiver. Similarly, counts dismissed without a determination of guilt do not require a waiver.
• Felony Offenses: The US Defense Forces use their own definitions of what constitutes a felony. Examples of felonies include assault, arson, burglary, manslaughter, robbery, and drug possession. Many other countries allow a felony conviction to be expunged and reduced to a misdemeanor.

In the end, the Military still makes the final decision and needs much more information about the case and the Applicant. The waiver, in this case, is by no means automatic, and it involves a more in-depth look at how the Applicant has adjusted to society after being released from prison or parole to be reduced to a misdemeanor.

Before deciding whether to grant a waiver, the Military must be satisfied that the applicants are currently suitable Whether the Applicant has a misdemeanor, felony, or even a serious felony offense on their record, they still should be hopeful about their goal of serving in any military branch as long as they follow the proper steps.

There is no substitute for honesty with a Military Recruiter. The Military's Criminal Record Waiver is a viable path available to not allow a criminal background to stop one from serving. When all the above is completed, applicants participate in the Oath of Enlistment ceremony. This ceremony is conducted by a commissioned Officer, who also signs the enlistment contract. While every enlisted Soldier takes the Oath of Enlistment, there is no mistaking the personal meaning this moment holds for each recruit.

The Dirty Dozen

During World War II, a dozen American military prisoners are offered parole--if they complete a suicide mission behind enemy lines just before D-Day. The plot is so well known now that it has become a cliché: a ragtag group of misfits and losers – in this case American soldiers convicted of high crimes - including murder – are brought together by a tough leader who believes in them, whipped into shape until they can work as a team, and then attempt an impossible, or suicidal, mission.

After weeks of grueling training, they are dressed in German uniforms, dropped deep behind enemy lines and left on their own to complete their mission and try to get out alive. A rebellious U.S. Army Major is assigned the dozen convicted murderers to train and lead them into a mass assassination mission of German officers. The screenplay is based on the 1965 bestseller by E. M. Nathanson which was inspired by a real-life WWII unit of behind-the-lines demolition specialists from the 101st Airborne Division named the "Filthy Thirteen".

As an action film, The Dirty Dozen ranks as a classic of the genre. The pacing of the film is good and lets the action steadily build up to a killer climax. The U. S. Army singles out 12 really tough guys, murderers and rapists, and assigns them to wipe out a chateau where a lot of German officers spend their holidays. Before the big mission, the "dirty dozen" train under the leadership of Lee Marvin. There are some nice, amusing scenes, especially when one of the dozen (Donald Sutherland) pretends to be a general and inspects some troops.

This cynical, no holds barred ode to carnage broke new ground in what American film makers could show and say in popular entertainment. It’s toxic masculinity at its best. Many believed the movie, and the bestselling book it was adapted from, are based on fact, but no sane American officer would ever sign on to such a scheme. That didn’t matter to audiences in 1967, who responded enthusiastically to the movie’s gritty anti-authority attitude and lack of restraint when it came to violence.

Lee Marvin, who had just won the Best Actor Oscar for CAT BALLOU, was now a certified leading man after years of playing some of the vilest villains ever to grace a Hollywood film. Marvin’s Major Reisman is often just as nasty as any of his bad guys. In almost all of his roles, and certainly in his best ones, Marvin radiated menace and a capacity for violence that was palpable; off screen, he was a hard drinking Marine veteran of combat in the Pacific, and the barely contained ferocity he brought to so many of his parts came from an honest place.

Lee Marvin acted in 56 films, most memorably as a villain or "tough guy" in Westerns and action movies. Although his namesake was Robert E. Lee, a distant relation, Marvin did not come from a military family; his father was a New York advertising executive, his mother a fashion editor. He joined the Marines at age 18 and served during World War II as a scout sniper in the Pacific. Hit in the spine by machine gun fire during the battle for Saipan, he spent a year in rehabilitation and received a Purple Heart, among other decorations. Marvin's notable films included "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962), "The Killers" (1964), "The Dirty Dozen" (1967) and "Cat Ballou" (1965), for which he received an Academy Award. "I applied a lot of what I learned in the Marines to my films," he said in a 1985 interview.

Marvin was given some real hard cases to play off of, starting with Jim Brown’s defiant black soldier who killed some racists who messed with him; John Cassavetes’s drafted street punk; Clint Walker’s easy going, until you push him too far, American Indian; Telly Savalas’s religious fanatic rapist; Donald Sutherland’s too dumb to know better loser; and best of all, Charles Bronson, as a good soldier who made the mistake of shooting a coward in the back in front of witnesses.

Then there is Ernest Borgnine and Robert Webber as a pair of Generals, George Kennedy and Ralph Meeker as fellow officers, Robert Ryan as Reisman’s chief antagonist, Richard Jaeckel as an MP. All together, they make one of the finest ensembles ever assembled for any movie, and every one of them at the top of their game.

That the working stiffs and underdogs here are guilty of the worst crimes is part of the subversive appeal of the DOZEN. That the United States military would find a way to make expert use of the worst kind of killers was a bracing dose of cynicism at the time. Aldrich and Heller also made it a redemption story where the scum of the earth learn to work together, trust each other, follow a leader who earns, and learns to return, their respect.

The movie THE DIRTY DOZEN led to three sequels, easily the best of which was the 1985 TV movie DIRTY DOZEN: THE NEXT MISSION, which reunited Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Richard Jaeckel from the original movie. Learning of a German plot to kill Hitler, Allied intelligence is worried. The war is not going well for the Reich and Hitler is making illogical and irrational decisions. The Allies realize that if the Fuhrer is assassinated, that the decision-making powers could be given to a more capable military commander and thereby prolong the war, as Borgnine's Gen. Worden notes, Hitler is in fact their best ally.