If you were going to prison for more than a decade and were able to enlist in the military for high risk situations but half the time would you?

The reason they don't have units like that is because criminals are often the type of people who don't like taking orders, following the rules, or authority figures.

depends on just what high risk situations we are talking. if i'm on an undermanned front line with isis or some enemy who is down with tearing my fingernails out or something if i'm captured, i'll pass. if its something like the iraq invasion where you aren't at great risk of capture and/or torture or working with volatile substances where its safe unless you fuck up, i'd definitely join the military.

No I wouldn't. If I faced a long prison sentence I would cut to the chase and end my life.

The military does accept some people who are given the choice to join instead of serve prison time. Like a last chance for them.

For me I don't like the idea of having criminals forced to fight for a country. Gives too much opportunity for undesirable activities. Criminals can't be trusted especially when you bunch them all together and give them weapons.

I would too, but I also seriously considered joining the armed forces out of high school too. I decided not to after talking with my brother, who was still in at the time.

The reason we (meaning the United States) don't use those kinds of units - undesirables, prisoners, etc - is that it's not the nature of our force composition. We're an all-volunteer force now (unless they decide to bring back the draft like tyrants), and that comes with certain benefits and downsides. The primary downside is that you have a smaller number of people in your forces that you would if you had some level of conscription. But on the upside, you tend to have high morale, dedicated, and disciplined soldiers instead of people who don't really want to be there. If you introduced prisoners to warfare in that kind of system, it would dilute the water, so to speak.

Maybe there comes a time where that's viable, but it's just not how we organize or manage our forces here.

EDIT: I actually missed the "high-risk situations" part. I read it as just being a regular grunt or something. I would probably take prison in that case. I rather like being alive.

I would, absolutely... Of course a lot of psychopaths who like murdering people would too. In fact people who should never have access to weapons would gravitate to the opportunity.

Most people are in prison because they simply can't control themselves, these are not the type of folks you want to have to rely on in the trenches and probably not the type of people the government is going to sink training/trust/equipment into.

Jails generally do have bootcamp programs, since jails are short time and many inmates are young and misguided it actually helps people get their shit together.

If it was a conflict that I agreed with, then military.
If not, then bring on the cell. I've done it before, I could manage again, if necessary.