"As a solution to solve the overcrowding prisons i think that for given sentences such as between 0 and 6 years the convicts should have a choice of joining the armed forces and serving our country as this may solve the problem for the amount of people committing so called " lesser offences " ...sign this petition if you agree that this action should be taken!"
Lucky, lucky armed forces! I bet they'd love this idea ... Not!
I believe professional military personnel hate the idea of conscription (notwithstanding those who argue that conscripted armies, among other things, won the World Wars) - and frankly, I'm not sure I blame them. I can't imagine there's much worse than working with or training unwilling people to do what you do by choice - it's got to be worse than teaching in that respect. Horrible.
How much worse, then, is the idea of making criminals do it.
Being a woolly liberal I've never given much thought to the professional military - I'm not quite a pacifist; I do know that military forces are necessary because there are always idiots who'll try to fight, and consequently sometimes you need an army. And it's no good trying to create one out of small cloth just when those occasions arise or something - too late, then. So I don't advocate disarmament or anything. But still, thinking about the military isn't something I've done much of. Until I started reading Baen Books several of which (those by John Ringo, David Weber, David Drake, among others) have made me think about these uncomfortable subjects. I'm never going to be one of those strangely-patriotic jump-up-and-down-about-"our-boys" sorts of people, but I do have a substantial respect for those who, however incomprehensibly, serve society in the military.
I don't think that that service would be improved by making them deal with criminals as part of their forces. Ludicrous idea, frankly.
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