Legal News

A Modest Proposal: Military Service as Punishment?

By Ashby Jones

A little food for thought on this Friday afternoon. How about military service, rather than prison, as a form of criminal punishment?

Over at the Sentencing Law and Policy blog, Douglas Berman has linked to the Fall 2008 issue of the Justice Policy Journal, which includes an article called “Alternatives to Incarceration.” The piece is focused on the military service alternative. The abstract reads:

While previous research has sought to evaluate prisoners’ perceptions of various alternatives to imprisonment, most have centered on the prisoners perspective as to the perceived severity of the alternative punishment. This research is quite different, as the proposed alternative does not seek to punish but rather to rehabilitate. The proposed alternative argues that military enlistment be utilized as an alternative to incarceration we intend to determine if prisoners would welcome such an alternative. Researchers have identified a correlation between military service and desistance from crime among youths, many of whom have had delinquent pasts. This current project is intended to expand upon the life course perspective as the military can act as a “rehabilitative agent” which will act as a hook for change, thereby facilitating desistance from criminal behavior.

In the current study, we argue that military service can facilitate social bonds, promote prosocial network contacts, and teach skills necessary for successful integration into the dominant society. Because of the benefits military service offers, it is hypothesized that prisoners will be receptive to such an alternative to incarceration. Through our interviews with prisoners at a minimum security facility in Kentucky, we discovered that indeed prisoners overwhelmingly would welcome such an alternative.

According to Berman, there is historical precedent for this:

One of the ways of avoiding a sentence of death during the middle ages was to accept a pardon from the King for service in the army for a year. “The terms were readily accepted, and the King increased his force by a number of men who would perhaps be inferior to none in courage, though they might not improve the discipline of the army.” Stanley Grupp, Some Historical Aspects of the Pardon in England, 7 Am. J.L. Hist. 51, 55 (1963).

LBers, it’s a provocative idea, especially given our well-publicized troubles with prison overcrowding and current shortages among the military’s enlisted. Any thoughts?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 30, 2009 (boomark / email).