one in every 11 prisoners used to be in the forces.

Former Member

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7589953.stm

What does this say about a career in the armed forces?

Anyone who's served want to throw some light on the subject?

Former Member

DG wrote: »

What does this say about a career in the armed forces?

They'll throw you aside the second you've completed you contract? Tbh, it's not that surprising, given the situation with homeless veterans too. It possibly suggests something to do with struggling to adapt back into society when you're used to having everything decided for you. There's also the fact that I suspect most people in the armed forces are from communities where a higher than average number of people commit crimes in the first place. I could be wrong, but I don't think you get many Eton graduates in the army. I think they've started to throw some money at this problem now though, so hopefully it'll improve. But the other worrying line was this:

Mr Fletcher said the "vast majority" of offences were violent and related to drugs or alcohol.

One thing that this report does kinda shit on though is this ridiculous idea that putting young criminals in the army or into national service will do something to straighten them out. Looks like it'll make them worse if anything.

Former Member

when you think about it though, the army employs quite a lot of people, more so than any other emplyer i know of?

Former Member

I'm With Stupid wrote: »

One thing that this report does kinda shit on though is this ridiculous idea that putting young criminals in the army or into national service will do something to straighten them out. Looks like it'll make them worse if anything.

I've seen it do a world of good for a lot of people. Of course this is only anecdotal evidence, but you can't assume everyone will come out worse.

Former Member

Meh, this isn't a particularly useful report without the rest of the stats to go with it. What percentage of the population are veterans? It's 5.5 million, but that includes national servicemen all over the age of 62 - and something tells me that 2/5 of these ex-servicemen in prison aren't over 62, when you consider how few prisoners are over 62 as a whole. In fact, it's not statistically possible, considering that 1602 prisoners are over 60 (2004 figures for England & Wales), and 8500 current prisoners are veterans. 3.3 million others, which would mean vets account for 5.5% of the population, but 9% of the prison population. But then you'd have to adjust for demographic and all that jazz, so I really don't know. But since there are people campaigning about it, I would guess there's some factual basis for it. But then again, there are people who campaign about a lot of things that are bollocks.

Former Member

I'm not sure how it all translates in Britain, but in America there is a distinct problem with ex-servicemen finding themselves either in jail or homeless (apparently an incredible 1 in 4 people living rough in the US are veterans).

To me two conclusions can be drawn from that: wars and conflict can be extremely damaging to people for many years after its end (not much of a surprise there, really), and the level of care and support offered to veterans in the US is completely inadequate.

I'd like to think British ex-servicemen receive better support in Britain. Then again their American counterparts have been through a lot more conflicts and shit over the years.