History Main / BoxedCrook

* A very unusual example of ExecutiveMeddling in ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars''. Creator/ClintEastwood's "Man with No Name" has no clear no motive to go to the town and get involved in the feud. This made TV network executives nervous, so when the film aired on TV, a prologue was filmed: the MWNN is released from prison to restore order to the town. This scene was shot without the permission of Sergio Leone, and without Eastwood's participation. Creator/HarryDeanStanton plays the Prison Governor.

* Creator/KarlMarx argued parts of the proletariat constitued the ''lumpenproletariat'', which was mainly composed from thugs and other assorted persons and who could be used by reactionary powers as counter-revolutionary forces. Afterwards, other Marxist thinkers continued reflexion on the subject, either to support, nuance or invert this view.

* [[http://bigstory.ap.org/article/penny-lane-gitmos-other-secret-cia-facility Apparently]] prisoners from Guantanamo Bay were released during UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror and "persuaded" (according to a former offical in one case by [[ShameIfSomethingHappened threatening his children]]) to help track and kill members of Al Qaida. Codename of the project: [[FluffyTheTerrible Penny]] [[Music/TheBeatles Lane]].

* After its 2022 invasion of Ukraine bogged down, Russia attempted to recruit criminals from Russian prisons to enlist, with a promise of a full pardon if they survived and burial with honors if they did not. While they did get some criminals (even ones who'd been convicted of violent crimes like murder) to sign up, many of them promptly deserted and attempted to flee into Ukrainian lines to surrender. Those who actually fought mostly ended up being fed to Ukrainian artillery and drones for no real gain. In at least one case, a murderer who recruited and went on leave killed another person.

* After its 2022 invasion of Ukraine bogged down, Russia attempted to recruit criminals from Russian prisons to enlist, with a promise of a full pardon if they survived and burial with honors if they did not. While they did get some criminals (even ones who'd been convicted of violent crimes like murder) to sign up, many of them promptly deserted and attempted to flee into Ukraine.

* In ''Manga/SpyXFamily'', a young Twilight was found out to have joined the army under a false identity and WISE confronted him with this information, giving him an ultimatum: join WISE and become their spy or get ratted out to the military police.

* The VillainEpisode "Task Force X" from ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' follows the Task Force (see the comics section) in their planned infiltration of the Watchtower.

* On the opposite side was the Dirlewanger Brigade, a unit of former criminals used for anti-partisan warfare whose conduct was so brutal that even SS commanders wanted it disbanded. Originally only consisting of poachers who had useful stalking and woodcraft skills, eventually more serious crimes and even the criminally insane were allowed to join. The regular army also had the ''Strafbattalions'', consisting of both court-martialed soldiers and civilian criminals.

** In series 10, the Doctor has taken on the task of reforming Missy. She starts out imprisoned for a thousand years, but eventually circumstances force Nardol to release her to pilot the TARDIS and rescue the Doctor, and after that she makes several forays into the outside universe for the purpose of doing good.

May stem from YouAllMeetInACell. SubTrope of LeonineContract and RecruitingTheCriminal. A related trope is TradingBarsForStripes (your prison sentence is commuted to military service) and another is RecruitedFromTheGutter (working for someone who saved you from a crappy life). Compare CondemnedContestant, IndispensableScoundrel, TrappedInVillainy, ForcedCreativity, and WinYourFreedom. Specifically scientific examples fall under DoctorVonTurncoat.

** Aiber also counts, at least in the manga, where he mentions in passing that L has enough evidence on him to get him life in prison, and he likes the chance to use his con artist skills.

* ''VideoGame/SystemShock'''s plot started when the hacker was caught breaking into [[MegaCorp TriOptimum]]'s network. One of their executives offered the hacker freedom and a new neural interface if he agreed to covertly disable [[MoralityChip some non-essential components]] of their space station's AI.

* In the SpinOff of ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' called ''ComicBook/BadGuys'', Hunter, Fang, Dingo, Matrix, and Yama are formed into the Redemption Squad. This was originally supposed to be an ''animated'' spinoff, but the show got cancelled.

* The title character in [[Creator/AkiraKurosawa Kurosawa's]] ''Film/{{Kagemusha}}'' is a thief saved from execution in order to act as a top-secret double for an identical-looking feudal warlord. How could THAT possibly go wrong?

* In the 1998 sci-fi BMovie ''Legion'', Creator/TerryFarrell commands a ''Dirty Dozen''-style team, only to find the enemy are already dead on reaching their target. Turns out a SuperSoldier is being TestedOnHumans, and their superiors have set them up to be the test subjects.
* In the film version of ''Film/TheManFromUNCLE'' this is Napoleon Solo's backstory: a GentlemanThief caught stealing paintings while in the military, and is being used as a spy for the CIA in exchange for avoiding a lengthy prison sentence. It's clear he hates it, especially when he has to team up with KGB agent Illya Kuryakin. [[spoiler: He risks taking the prison sentence when he and Illya burn research information they've both been ordered to get rather than kill each other, but then Waverly comes along with an offer to join his new organization, U.N.C.L.E.]]

* Many of the soldiers in Marvel/Epic's ''ComicBook/AlienLegion'' were this.
* The Nick Spencer run of ''ComicBook/AntMan'' uses a humorous but semi-realistic version of this to explain why [[NinjaPirateRobotZombie gay android supervillain]] Machinesmith is [[OnlyInFlorida working a dead end job in Miami]]. Machinesmith was offered parole in exchange for using his skills to help SHIELD hack into Latverian computers. After doing so, he was released and sent to Florida and has to report regularly to a parole officer. Scott Lang (Ant Man) [[RecruitingTheCriminal offers him a job at his new security company]], which Machinesmith accepts since it was an improvement over his previous one (being beaten up by kids at Avengers-themed birthday parties).

* Another team of Marvel villains like this was the Freedom Force; technically, this was what Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants became after they offered their services to Valerie Cooper in exchange for pardons from the government. They were able to do a few good deeds (most notably apprehending Magneto) but after a few unpopular incidents like trying to enforce the original [[SuperRegistrationAct Mutant Registration Act]], which brought them into conflict with the X-Men and X-Factor, the team fell apart. Especially damaging was that they made a very violent attempt to take down the X-Men in San Francisco, where contrary to the usual "hated and feared by those they protect" situation the X-Men were well-liked by the locals and on good terms with the police...who arrested Freedom Force instead. And Mystique had to go along with that because they were nominally the good guys now. (Cooper decided to hire X-Factor to replace them.)

* Hmmm... approached by mysterious figure... Check. Government offering amnesty for past wrongs... check. Deniability... check. ''ComicBook/LeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', anyone?
* This is how the ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperheroes'' villain group The Fatal Five got formed--the Legion offered five dangerous super-criminals pardons if they would help save Earth from the menace of a sun-eater. Unfortunately, once they'd been thrown together, they decided they liked the idea of teaming up to commit crime. Oops.
* Kurt Busiek's short-lived ''ComicBook/TheLibertyProject'' is an earlier example of super-powered criminals in this trope. Unlike most other examples, it's completely above-board, and done at least partly in the hope of rehabilitating the criminals.

* ZigZagged in ''ComicBook/OrangeCrows'' -- The young Witch Cierra was exiled from her home in the Orange District to the Wilderness after illicit experimentation on her part destroyed a research lab and injured her best friend Natalie. When her term of exile is up, Cierra is confronted by Natalie (now the head of an elite team of magical enforcers under the Special Witch and Warlock Squad, or S.W.S.) and given the choice to return to the Orange District to undergo a trial that will determine if she's fit to re-join society, or to refuse trial and face immediate execution. Cierra chooses to return, and after spending a day in a holding cell waiting for her trial to begin she's informed that the trial is over and her citizenship is restored. That's when she discovers she's been remanded to the custody of Natalie's squad, forbidden from seeing her family, and forced to work for the S.W.S. on their dangerous missions if she wants to stay in the District and stay alive.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' and ''ComicBook/XFactor: Shadowgames'' has the titular heroes fighting the Shadowforce, a team of convicted criminals who were granted superpowers and special equipment by a secret military operation named Project: Homegrown. Project: Homegrown wasn't supposed to use convicts but General Macauley Sharpe, the head of the project, went beyond the limits of his assignment and had his people grant six convicted felons super powers based on data from various superhero origins including incomplete notes on ComicBook/CaptainAmerica's SuperSoldier serum, the gamma radiation test that created ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk and the fate space flight that gave the ComicBook/FantasticFour their powers.

* An incarnation of Creator/MarvelComics' ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' is as a team of former -- and not-so-former -- supervillains sent to apprehend superheroes who don't obey the SuperRegistrationAct introduced in the ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' CrisisCrossover.

* ComicBook/UltimateMarvel

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': Magik was given this status following the events of the ''Schism'', selected by Cyclops to be a member of the "Extinction Team." There wasn't an offer for release or parole with it -- she was only let out of the X-Brig for missions, and her suit had a lethal fail-safe to prevent her from teleporting away. This relaxation of her sentence seemed to have both positive and negative impacts; after gaining new powers from the Phoenix Force, she escaped, purged the Juggernaut's powers from her brother permanently and she remains a supporter of Cyclops and his revolutionary [=X-Men=]. (Unfortunately, this didn't help her and Colossus reconcile; it actually made their relationship worse than ever, as he figured out she could have done that at any time and made him keep the Juggernaut powers to teach him a lesson. He has since said that he actually wants to see her ''dead''.)
* In ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'', the Evronian Empire has a prison planet named The Well for this exact reason. It's impossible to escape, but it happens that the Empire needs some particularily dirty jobs done, in which case you may get pulled out. This is what happens to Trauma, an evronian super-soldier for whom the prison was originally built. Gorthan recruits him specifically to take care of PK, both for practical reasons, and because Gorthan's heard that PK is fearless, and he wants to put that theory to the test.

* ''VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany'' is a video game portraying a company made up of the men whose offenses within the US Army aren't serious enough for a court martial and as such are used as essentially cannon fodder. It's not purely this trope, since it's mentioned that people without records, like Sarge, can also serve in the company for

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]]: The Sixth Doctor was roped along a RagtagBunchOfMisfits, including minor annoyance Sabalom Glitz, into stealing a priceless artifact for a corrupt government officer in the novel ''Mission: Impractical''. The officer poisoned them and withheld the antidote as extra security, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness not actually intending to survive past the theft]], but the poison doesn't work on Time Lords and Six quickly whips a cure for Glitz (which he administers without his knowledge). He then proceeds to more or less forget to inform Glitz of this until the end.

* In ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'', a society that has all but obliterated crime (by catching the potential criminals early and "reforming" them) finds itself ill-equipped to deal with the few criminals who slip through the cracks. So the Special Corps captures the more "moral" criminals (those who value human life) and sends them off to tackle the less moral criminals who pose a more significant threat. Minus ''A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born'', this is the backbone of almost all the books, starting with our hero's capture by the agency in the start of the first book. Oh, and he meets his wife, a FemmeFatale SerialKiller, via his new job, and after she has a [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood minor lobotomy]], she joins up too.
** ''The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues'', which chronologically takes place before the first novel in the series, where Jim is xxxaptured trying to steal newly-minted coins and is sentenced (without trial) to [[AllCrimesAreEqual execution]] by leaving him in a room that's being flooded. An agency (not the Special Corps) replaces him in the room with an android in return for being sent to a [[PenalColony prison world]] to recover an alien artifact. Naturally, he's given a slow-acting poison to make sure he hurries up.

* In the series premiere of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', Tom Paris is let out of prison to help Janeway track down a Maquis ship. (Not that Paris is much of a crook.) This ends up shifting to TradingBarsForStripes when ''Voyager'' gets stuck on the other side of the galaxy and loses a good chunk of its crew.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' did the same thing with Ro Laren, Bajoran Starfleet officer who'd been in prison. They let her out in order to help negotiate with a group of Bajoran "[[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters resistance fighters]]" who had expanded their war against the Cardassians to include Federation targets.

** If there aren't enough death row criminals to fill the ranks of D-class, the Foundation will lower their standards to political prisoners, refugees, the homeless, or even regular citizens if desperate. Anyone guilty of infiltrating the Foundation to steal anomalous items, or doing/suggesting something overly inhumane to an anomaly can be arrested and sentenced to D-class.

* In Rhodesia, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selous_Scouts Selous Scouts]], who fought against guerillas by using asymmetric warfare, were rcruited in part among returned guerillas, some of them having been condemned to death and which they had to actually escape from death row.

May stem from YouAllMeetInACell. SubTrope of LeonineContract and RecruitingTheCriminal. A related trope is TradingBarsForStripes (your prison sentence is commuted to military service) and another is RecruitedFromTheGutter (working for someone who saved you from a crappy life). Compare CondemnedContestant, IndispensableScoundrel, TrappedInVillainy, ForcedCreativity, and WinYourFreedom.

* In ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'', [[spoiler: Ryoko returns to protect Kyon from Kuyoh, and appears in a BigDamnHeroes moment to fight Kuyoh in a Knife Battle, making the scene where she tries to kill Kyon a {{Foreshadowing}} scene.]]

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': This shows up in two forms.
** Crossing the OneNationUnderCopyright government sees you forced to work like this, as happens to CyberNinja Nelia for TheCaper gone wrong, when she takes a PleaBargain not to be treated as a terrorist (which would lead to AFateWorseThanDeath at the hands of MadScientist experiments). Nelia works as a bodyguard, hit woman, and general combatant afterwards, with an ExplosiveLeash.
** [[WorkOffTheDebt Falling into debt]] is treated similarly via IndenturedServitude to the debt master, minus the collar, with some of these hunters like Kadol being hired by Shirakabe to serve as CannonFodder distractions. They typically have a handler like Colbert watching over them to keep them from fleeing and/or faking their deaths. Revin and Babalodo serve as ButtMonkey examples working alongside [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits Sheryl's gang.]]

* Played with in ''LightNovel/TorturePrincessFremdTorturchen''. After being captured by the Church, title character Elisabeth Le Fanu was sentenced to [[BurnTheWitch burn at the stake]] for her crimes, but her sentence was suspended until she slays the [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils fourteen ranked demons]] and their [[DealWithTheDevil contractors]]. [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou They still fully intend to execute her but she's too useful for the time being.]] [[DeathSeeker She welcomes this fate.]] [[spoiler:Her execution is stayed a second time in volume 3 courtesy of Kaito pulling a ZeroApprovalGambit to make the Church pursue ''him'' as the Kaiser's new contractor.]]