Washington (eCanadaNow) - The U.S. Army and Marine Corps have decided to allow convicted felons to enlist.  861 convicted felons enlisted in the Army and Marines in 2007, an 88% increase from 2006.

According to new information, convicted felons are actually helping quite a bit in terms of bossting the numbers of recruits.

The Army gave felony waivers to 511 recruits in 2007, up from 249 in 2006.

The Marine Corps gave out 350 waivers, up from 208 in 2006.

The waivers for convictions span across a wide variety of crimes.  These include sex crimes, manslaughter, burglary, and others.

Some waivers were given to recruits convicted of making terrorist threats, these include bomb threats.