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can the army rehabilitate?

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  • 15-05-2012 1:49pm
    #1
    kingofthenerds
    Closed Accounts Posts: 41 ✭


    i was watchig a documentary on prisoners in florida and a lot of the young offenders were given a chance to undergo boot camp for 6 months instead of facing incarceration. ive often heard that this is the reason why people join the foreign legion, to try and change their lives around. would all that dicipline help someone change or is it a case of once a criminal always a criminal?


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    #2
    minidazzler
    Registered Users Posts: 14,739 ✭✭✭✭minidazzler


    I'd presume they would have to want to change.

    You can beat a man into changing, but you can't control what he changes into if he is being a part of it unwillingly. It could make him just more angry, but fitter and better able to take care of himself.

    Giving them a chance at 6 months boot camp rather than a year in prison is a pretty obvious choice to take, even if the offender doesn't want to change.

    That said, I am a much bigger supporter of sentences that aim to reform than punish. (except in some cases where I am pro-death penalty)


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    #3
    KickstartHeart
    Registered Users Posts: 311 ✭✭KickstartHeart


    kingofthenerds wrote: »
    i was watchig a documentary on prisoners in florida and a lot of the young offenders were given a chance to undergo boot camp for 6 months instead of facing incarceration. ive often heard that this is the reason why people join the foreign legion, to try and change their lives around. would all that dicipline help someone change or is it a case of once a criminal always a criminal?


    No. The Irish military doesn't have any involvement in that sort of thing. The Irish military isn't short on potential members, so the state doesn't need to do what is done in the US.

    The Legion now check with interpol too and can be tipped off by police forces all around the round about you if you've had a particularly bad record, or if they're looking for you. Best off to get in contact with them via email (email address is on legion-recrute.com/en), they'll take a few days to get back to ya but they do. You can get in if you've been done for assault or something minor like that but this legend that criminals can get into the legion (as in proper criminals) isn't true at all.


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    #4
    laoch na mona
    Registered Users Posts: 2,965 ✭✭✭laoch na mona


    good idea but wouldn't work here our army is to small


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    #5
    minidazzler
    Registered Users Posts: 14,739 ✭✭✭✭minidazzler


    Actually now that I think of it, OP, you might get a better response and debate about this in Humanities. Seems like the exact kind of thread that's up their alley :)


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    #6
    Delancey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,451 ✭✭✭Delancey


    No doubt there are stories about young men ' going off the rails ' who get their act together by joining the military - equally there are plenty of criminal biographies showing an early discharge from the army for those who went on to become career criminals.
    The Kray twins did National Service and look how they turned out , the longest serving prisoner in the UK is a guy called Harry Roberts who has been in jail for 45 years for killing 3 Policemen in London - he had an exemplerary record in the Army but became a killer in civilian life.

    Conservative MP's in the UK often call for national Service as a solution to ' yobbery ' and the populist press like the Daily Mail back them up - pure posturing and nothing more.


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