| It's just a return to the old days when, for instance, young adults would get in big trouble and the judge would say "It's the Army or it's jail." The Armed Services can help a person mature and grow to be a useful part of society like no other program. No other can claim such success. Not the largest rehab center or the most forward thinking prison with the most liberal of rehabilitation programs. You can't get through basic training successfully and still believe that life is about you and your bad attitude. They break you down systematically until you understand that you are NOTHING unless they tell you otherwise. You start from a fresh place, sort of like being remolded, and can literally change your life in a way you cannot do as a civilian.
So I think that criminals being reshaped by the Armed Services have a much better chance of changing their lives - which consequently makes OUR lives better by eliminating some of the criminal element that is just poured back onto the street from our jails, unchanged and ready to go back to a life of crime again. For centuries the Armed Services of any nation often benefitted from the dregs of society who joined up in an effort to change their lives, or just simply so they could eat regularly and have a place to sleep. Better than the alternative I think.  |