Does the panel agree that ex-convicts should be recruited into the army?
Piers Morgan: It’s a great idea. Do you want a culture with these overmanned prisons or to take people who’ve fallen out of society and put them in the army where they would instil some discipline into them. A lot of these guys are wasting their lives there. The army will make or break these guys. We’ve got quite a few good soldiers in the prison system and it would be a good way of getting them back. Archie Norman: The army today have great difficult recruiting. The army should remain a volunteer army. It’s effectiveness depends on morale and solidarity. Convicts would threaten that morale and teamwork. I’m worried about the effect on the average squaddie. There’s a risk convicts may feel obliged to go in. Gillian duCharme: I would think that it would be very good. In American boot camps people are knocked back into shape. My only problem is should we give them guns? Andrew Smith: We have to distinguish between forcing convicts into the army and giving them the opportunity to go in. A
