Hello,

Thank you for the information and your question. You actually appear to have asked two different questions. One is whether or not you can enlist in the military if you have served time in jail (after a conviction for some crime I assume), and the other is whether you can avoid jail by enlisting in the service. The answer, unfortunately, is no to both questions.

I'll start with the last question first. Many years ago it wasn't uncommon for a court to give a young man a choice of jail or the military. At that time the military would eagerly take a recruit no matter what their background was. Those days are long gone. The courts and the military have no connection and the military accessions standards have gone up. So, although a judge might be swayed by a promise of a defendant to join the military, which is doubtful, the military would follow suit and enlist the person. Going to a recruiter with charges pending in a criminal court, will not get someone enlisted and would not avoid punishment by the civilian court just because they have enlisted.

As for the second issue. It also used to be that certain convictions could be waived by the military for purposes of enlistment. Those were the days during a major ramp up in military personnel because of the conflicts we were involved in around the world. Now though that the military is in a major drawdown, the requirements for enlistment are going up. That means that waivers are almost non-existent. An applicant would have to have a highly needed skill and have a minor criminal record in order for the military to even consider a waiver.

Please let me know if you have any follow up questions.

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