Probation officer offers military service to clear criminal record

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

I took this information from the story below. This seems like an important disclosure.

Tank loader fled troubled past to a desperate, dangerous present

By Bruce Finley
Denver Post Staff Writer

>snip

Pvt. Allen Burns set his chin on his hand and just stared, "trying to zone away from this place."
A 19-year-old tank loader from north St. Louis, he was leaning up against a concrete barrier that blocks potential suicide bombers from a base-camp phone center where other soldiers were talking with people back home. Tent tarps flapped in the distance and the sun rose, pushing temperatures above 90 degrees.

"I hate it here," Burns said. "I run my life through my head. This is not how my life was supposed to be."

>snip

He wouldn't have to be here in Iraq, with the Colorado-based 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, if he hadn't messed up.

>snip


His probation officer told him Army service could clear his record. Otherwise, he could lose rights such as voting, Burns said. "I didn't want to give up those rights."

>snip

A sad story, and an indication that probation officers are acting as recruiters...MKJ

edited to add linkhttp://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~34719~2831680,00.html

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. Is it common knowledge that troubled kids are being told to join in order

avoid criminal charges or jail time? Am I just behind the times on this?
I thought the military was promoting it's highly professional volunteer corps and deriding the practice of collecting its recruits from the criminal element, as had occured with Vietnam. MKJ

[MountainLaurel]

2. Hasn't this been SOP forever?

I vaguely recall reading stories in the Vietnam Era about men who were given the choice of either doing jail time or joining the military.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

4. Exactly and I recall that Rumsfeld derided the Vietnam era as producing

sub par soldiers due to the draft and recruiting from folks who would be facing jail or felony charges.

I'm going to look for a link. MKJ
edited to add, from Mark Shields's blog on CNN, a quote:


First, the smear of veterans. Speaking of the 11 million Americans who, during the Vietnam years, answered their country's draft call and the 2 million who served in Vietnam, Rumsfeld alleged that these draftees "added no value, no advantage, really, to the United States armed services over any sustained period of time, because the churning that took place, it took enormous amount of effort in terms of training, and then they were gone."

I'll say "then, they were gone!" Of the 58,152 Americans who gave their lives in Vietnam 20,352 of them were draftees. How dare the secretary of defense say these good and brave Americans "added no value, no advantage, to the United States armed services?"

MKJ

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. This has happened before

when I was a kid, teenage boys who got into trouble were offered the choice of enlisting in the army or going to jail. My stepfather had a nephew who did this, and it did turn his life around. Trouble was, that was in the late 50s, early 60s, way before much Viet Nam involvement. Also, it was a time of draft, when supposedly standards for the military were more lax than now.

Seems to me that someone facing jail time who opts to sign up for the military now has just increased his chances greatly of being killed or maimed-and for what? An action which, imho, was as illegal as anything a teenager might have done.

[HawkerHurricane]

5. Old story, and a true one.

Trials in OLD England would have a Naval Officer and a Army Officer at them.
When the defendant would be found guilty (and he would be), the judge would ask first the Naval Officer if he wanted the man. If he said no, the Army Officer was given the choice. If he said no, then the defendant was either transported (to Georgia or later Australia), flogged, or hung, depending on the crime.

I imagine now that the Army gets first pick instead of the Navy...

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

6. Judging from this link it is illegal to cull recruits in this manner

MKJ

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joiningthemilitary/a/joinprison.htm


edited to add:

"Applicant who, as a condition for any civil conviction or adverse disposition or any other reason through a civil or criminal court, is ordered or subjected to a sentence that implies or imposes enlistment into the Armed Forces of the United States is not eligible for enlistment.." Army reg 601-210

[evlbstrd]

7. Lots of guys I served with in the 70s

were given exactly that option. The draft had just ended and the All Volunteer force was just getting into gear.

[MADem]

8. This IS an important disclosure, and let me tell you WHY

Counterfeiting is a damn FELONY. That, under previous AVF (All Volunteer Force) recruiting practices, would be very, very hard--damn near IMPOSSIBLE--to waiver. You would have to get a SERVICE SECRETARY up-check on a felony, and they never gave them out--certainly not for that offense.

I am reading between the lines here, but it sounds to me like the probation officer is working with the Army, and preventing the information from being entered into the database so that it will show up on an FBI check. Then, the recruiter and the kid basically conspire to make a false official statement on the 1066 form. When the kid ships to and graduates from boot camp, they toss the paperwork in the garbage.

I know they pulled this shit in the Vietnam era and previous to that (it was damn near de rigeur) but since they went to the QUALITY, not quantity guidelines, it had been a MAJOR Bozo No-No. You did not bullshit the criminal record, because the correlation between possessing the criminal record and the likelihood of the servicemember completing their tour was small. They were "administrative burdens" and did not give value for the amount expended on their training.

That said, despite the fact that this is clearly a "fraudulent enlistment" that kid is stuck. He can be punished for lying, even if the court officer and the recruiter aided and abetted him in the lie, but they can still keep him after they punish him. The ultimate catch-22...

Salient articles from the UCMJ:

ART. 83. FRAUDULENT ENLISTMENT, APPOINTMENT, OR SEPARATION
Any person who--
(1) procures his own enlistment or appointment in the armed forces by knowingly false representation or deliberate concealment as to his qualifications for the enlistment or appointment and receives pay or allowances thereunder; or
(2) procures his own separation from the armed forces by knowingly false representation or deliberate concealment as to his eligibility for that separation;
shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
884. ART. 84. UNLAWFUL ENLISTMENT, APPOINTMENT, OR SEPARATION
Any person subject to this chapter who effects an enlistment or appointment in or a separation from the armed forces of any person who is known to him to be ineligible for that enlistment, appointment, or separation because it is prohibited by law, regulation, or order shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

9. Exactly, MADem. This seems to be in direct violation of the Army regs

I posted a separate thread around this, because, as you stated, the quality vs. quantity guidelines, as illustrated by the reg I cited and your reference to Art. 83, is being subverted.

Thanks for your input, and I still think this need further investigation. MKJ