More felons granted waivers to enlist

Still scrambling to meet recruiting goals since the beginning of the war in Iraq, the Department of Defense is granting many more morals waivers to men and women who want to join the military but have criminal records. The Army granted more than double the number of waivers for felonies and misdemeanors in 2006 than it did in 2003. Some recruits may get more than one waiver.

The number of felony waivers granted by the Army grew from 411 in 2003 to 901 in 2006, according to the
Pentagon, or about one in 10 of the moral waivers approved that year. Other misdemeanors, which could be petty theft, writing a bad check or some assaults, jumped from about 2,700 to more than 6,000 in 2006. The minor crimes represented more than three-quarters of the moral waivers granted by the Army in 2006, up from more than half in 2003.

Source: The Associated Press